Give Yourself Away
by ToManyLetters
Summary: Sequel to Never Alone. After discovering her father and family friend's roles in a plot to tear her from her relationship with Harry, Pansy's life may be in danger, and, she will soon discover, so is Harry's. A whole new year begins.
1. Back at Hogwarts

**Author's Note: **This is the sequel to my story entitled, "Never Alone". If you have not read that, this story will be quite confusing to you. You can read this story easily by clicking my name, ToManyLetters. This will lead you to my profile, scroll down and chose "Never Alone."

For those who are already familiar with Never Alone, enjoy the first installment of Book 2.

* * *

The events that had transpired last year, as grave as they were, had passed from Pansy's mind. She now could spend nearly all of her time with the Boy-Who-Lived, _her _Harry, and was never more glad to be able to do so.

It was nearly an hour before the remainder of the school would arrive on the Hogwarts Express and eat their start-of-term feast, but, all the same, these young friends had met-up with Dumbledore three days early to make themselves at home.

Because of Pansy's continued endangerment, Deputy Headmistress McGonagall had arranged for Pansy and Harry, to share a hidden dorm on the fifth floor. They were not, however, alone.

"Remind me why we're here, again?" asked Ron. Hermione flopped on top of him.

"To keep them in check." said Hermione, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend.

"Hear that, Harry?" asked Ron heartily, "We're here to keep you in check!"

"Why do I get the feeling _we_'ll be keeping _them_ in check?" giggled Pansy, crawling into Harry's lap. Harry kissed her gently,

"'Cause we won't get caught." he whispered, rubbing his nose against hers and smiling.

For a short while, the room was quiet. Then, Pansy spoke.

"So, Sirius Black was innocent." she asked. Pansy had not been with them during the fiasco at the end of the last school year in which they learned Sirius was innocent and Peter Pettigrew was... not. "...and your godfather."

"Yes." said Harry simply, stroking her hair, "He was framed by Peter Pettigrew."

"So, now that you have permission to go to Hogsmeade..." Pansy started, her eyes glittering brightly in the torchlight.

Harry silenced her with a kiss and spoke softly,

"We can go together."

"So, what do you reckon Percy's been going on about?" Hermione asked, Pansy and Harry turned their heads.

"No clue." replied Harry, "Seemed rather excited about it, though."

"Percy gets excited about cauldron bottoms." said Ron, "At least that gives him a bottom to..."

Hermione elbowed him in the stomach, hard.

"Ouch! 'Mione, you've really got to stop doing that." Ron winced.

"Watch your mouth then, or I'll have to clean it out." Hermione hissed, pulling herself away from him.

"Only if you use your tongue..." Ron mumbled. Hermione growled, folded her arms in a very Pansy-like fashion and huffed.

"It'll be your fault if we can't have kids." said Ron, very seriously.

Hermione spun around and delivered a resounding slap.

"Thinking into the future, are we?" giggled Pansy.

"I'm just being..." Ron defended, his hand placed on his cheek where Hermione's hand had just been.

"Your normal, insensitive..." ranted Hermione, again turning away from him.

"And they're a couple?" Pansy asked Harry.

"Yup." Harry laughed, "Madly in love, those two."

Pansy giggled and kissed Harry once more. They would need to leave soon, for the start-of-term feast would begin shortly.


	2. Another Year Begins

Finishing its song, the sorting had flopped down and went still.

"I will place the hat on your head," began McGonagall, "and you will be sorted into your houses."

She cleared her throat importantly and unrolled a length scroll.

"Aragon, Sarah"

There was a short wait before the hat responded enthusiastically.

"SLYTHERIN!"

A few more names went by, when a cutesy girl shuffled her way forward in the line, anticipating her name being called,

"Granger, Nicole"

"You never told me you had a sister."

"It's never come up. Besides, she has a twin."

"A twin? Blimey," said Fred happily. "George, you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"

"Doubt it." replied George in undertone.

"You dream about it every night!" Fred laughed.

"How do you know that?"

"Because I do, too." he admitted, turning to look once again at Nicole Granger.

Fred and George burst out laughing. The sorting hat reached its decision and shouted,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Granger, Nikolas" came McGonagall's voice.

"Ah, horse..." grumbled Fred.

"It's a male!" hissed George. Hermione chuckled heartily.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

As Nicole and Nikolas took their seats beside their sister, a few more student's names were called, each of them sorted quickly into their houses.

"Malfoy, Libra"

"Five galleons that she's a Slytherin." said George smugly to Nick.

"You're on." grinned Nikolas, shaking George's hand. Hermione scowled at her little brother.

"Every Malfoy has been a Slytherin for centuries. You've just lost yourself all this year's spending money."

The hat atop the young Malfoy's head stay quiet, thinking long and hard about where to place her.

"What's taking it so long?" asked Fred.

"Maybe she killed it." joked Ron.

The hat continued to stay quiet. The hall was now whispering. Maybe she wasn't in any of them?

"Hmm..." said George quickly, turning to Nick, "Wanna take your bet back? I'll let you."

"Not a chance." smirked Nick, turning back to face Libra Malfoy. She smiled nervously at him.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"WHAT!?" screeched a rather disturbed Draco Malfoy from across the hall. Libra stood shakily and walked to sit next to Nikolas at the Gryffindor table.

She leaned over to his ear and whispered a barely audible, "Thanks."

"Thanks for what?" asked Hermione. Nick didn't answer. Turning to face George, he grinned,

"That's five Galleons, Mister."

George rolled his eyes and paid up.


	3. The Triwizard Tournament

The hall had broken out in a flurry of whispers, the vast majority of the Hall sat staring, and ofttimes pointing, at Libra Malfoy.

"I don't like her." Nicki admitted, glaring across the table where Libra now sat, next to her twin.

"Now, I have a few start of term notices I wish to announce." began Dumbledore, speaking loudly and clearly over the chatter. "First, it is my privilege to welcome Professor Alastor Moody to the Defense Against the Dark Arts post."

There was some polite clapping, but everyone, Harry included, felt a little leery of this man. He was badly scarred, and one of his eyes, greatly mismatched in color to the other, spun around in dizzy circles.

"Secondly, as a few of our older students would do well to remember, the Forbidden Forest is just as its name suggests, _forbidden_."

He chuckled lightly at his own joke. The whole of the staff table had its eyes staring Harry down like a bad disease. What? Did he have a reputation or something?

"Thirdly, Hogwarts will not only be your home this year, but will play host to a few guests as well. Without further ado, I am pleased to welcome the wonderful students of Beauxbatons, Academy of Magic, and their Headmistress, Madam Maxime."

In a stunning display of blue fireworks and banners, several dozen beautiful women and handsome men entered through the doors of the Great Hall. The fairest of the lot, a young, yet matured silvery-blonde beauty, spun in circles through the aisle of tables to the front of the Great Hall to where the staff table was. Bowing elegantly, she smiled and cast a look at Harry.

"Sit down!" grumped Pansy, pulling Harry down quickly. Harry noticed he had not been the only out of his seat. Hermione was busy muscling Ron back into his.

"And now, our friends from the North, the proud pupils of Headmaster Igor Karkaroff, Durmstrang!"

Through the door next came several burly looking men, using staves and wands, the Durmstrang students put up a magnificent display of fiery beasts as they marched their way to the front of the room. There were very few females in their group.

"Blimey, that's Viktor Krum!"

"Who?" asked Harry innocently.

"He's the best seeker in the world!" replied Ron, his jaw hanging open. "He plays for Bulgaria."

"Still made them lose to Ireland at the World Cup." said George, laughing.

"They were getting owned." Ron defended, "They never would have recovered."

"Still," said Fred, "Shame dad couldn't get tickets."

Dumbledore cleared his throat and spoke once again as the students and Headmasters of the visiting school chose seats throughout the Hall.

"Every seventy years, a competition is held among three of Europe's most willing schools. Here to explain more about this is the Head of International Magical Cooperation, Mister Centros Alishir."

"Centros Alishir?" inquired Hermione, "What happened to Mr. Crouch?"

"Crouch was fired after the fiasco at the World Cup." Ron explained, staring at his plate, anxiously awaiting the arrival of his meal.

"Fiasco?"

"Oh, sorry, I forgot you don't get the _Prophet_." Ron's voice was very serious. "Yeah, whole bunch of people were attacked." Ron sank his head down further, closer to Harry, "Rumor has it there was even a Dark Mark." her whispered, shivering as he said it.

"Dark Mark?" asked Harry innocently.

"_His_ mark, Harry." explained the beautiful girl beside him, "_His_ sign."

The man named Centros Alishir was a dark, thin man, who, though he appeared old, still had the energy of the Weasley Twins.

"The Triwizard Tournament is a competition set once every seventy years between three..."

"It hasn't been held for centuries," Ron said, his eyes opened wide.

"Because it's bloody dangerous." Hermione hissed. Nick, Nicki, and Ron all turned to stare at her. Nick's mouth opened first,

"You swore!" he breathed, almost excitedly.

"You never swear!" mouthed Nicki, smiling widely. Hermione blushed and covered her mouth.

Pansy turned to Harry and whispered,

"I think he's rubbing off on her."

"For the better?" Harry joked.

"We'll see about that." Pansy smiled and placed her head on Harry's shoulder. Harry felt peace with her there beside him and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"...regrettably, because of the danger involved, the Ministry has seen fit to impose a new rule: NO student under the age of seventeen shall be allowed to put forth their name..."

The Great Hall broke into ever-loudening cries of outrage.

"THAT DECISION IS FINAL!" Mr. Alishir yelled. The shouting died down.

"I wonder who they've got judging the entries. You reckon we could fool 'em. We only need a few months." asked Fred, nudging George.

"All who wish to submit themselves to the tournament need only write their name on a piece of parchment and cast it into the Goblet of Fire by this time next Thursday evening."

Fred looked confused,

"Goblet of Fire?"

Their questions were answered instantly as Mr. Filch wobbled into the Hall carrying a large, silver box. As Filch departed, Mr. Alishir lifted his staff at the box and the silvery covering melted away revealing an enormous golden goblet.

"Do not do so lightly. Once a part, there is no going back."

"Wicked." said the Weasley twins, grinning at one another.

With that, Centros Alishir walked his way back to his seat, his staff clanking against the floor with each step.

* * *

Midway into the feast, Nicki Granger turned to Fred,

"You reckon..." she started, he answered her before she could finish,

"Yep, she's flirting."

There was an awkward silence.

"No... I mean do you reckon the Sorting Hat made a mistake?" she asked, staring down the girl next to her twin brother.

"No, it never does." said Hermione firmly.

"She's a Malfoy." growled Ron. Pansy shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Maybe she's different." Hermione reasoned.

"That doesn't make it all go away, Hermione." Pansy mumbled, swirling her fork through her corn.

Last year, Pansy had nearly died at the hand of the girl's father, Lucius Malfoy. For most of that year, Harry, as had the rest of them, believe that Draco had been involved.

"I know, Pansy, I..." Hermione tried to apologize when, very suddenly, George's potatoes erupted into his face, sending chicken and corn flying behind him, a thigh hitting an unsuspecting Ravenclaw girl Harry recognized from Quidditch last year as Cho Chang.

"What the..." George grumped.

"I hear you're a bit of a prankster." Nick said, holding his fork up into the air and smiling.

"Yes," replied George, smearing some of the potatoes off from his face, "What does that have to do with this?"

"Consider yourself pranked." Nick smiled widely. Fred turned and shook Nick's hand,

"I'm gunna love this. The war is on."**  
**


	4. Ancient Magic

After finishing supper, the quartet sneaked their way up to their private dormitory. Walking past the three portraits guarding their common room and mumbling each password in succession, they entered the large room and flopped down on the red and green sofa.

Beside the sofa lay a desk, and on that desk lay a...  
_  
The writer mercilessly beats the Narrator upside the head.  
_  
On the table beside the sofa rested a book Hermione did not recognize. Her inner bookworm clawed at her to pick it up and inhale its contents. She fought the urge, staring the book down like a foul Slytherin.

She put her hand out to reach for it.. and caught herself. Pulling her hand back, she turned away.

"Oh, go on, 'Mione." grinned Ron as she frowned. Hermione spun around quickly and grabbed the book, sticking her nose deep into its pages she read speedily. Reading was like an addiction for her. Her first addiction in the incurable pair.

She continued to read, then set the book down some. Her eyes glazed slightly.

"This... isn't Latin magic." she said finally, screwing her eyes up on the page.

"Not Latin what?" Ron queried.

"All the magic _we _do is based on Latin." she said. "None of this magic is."

Scanning the page with her bright brown eyes, she held her hand out. Ron looked ready to hold it when...

A swoosh echoed through the room and, floating an inch from the palm of her hand, rested a swirling maelstrom of frost. Ron retracted his hand quickly, looking at her with a terrified expression,

"You're a bit scary sometimes." whined Ron, "Brilliant and bloody gorgeous, but scary." Pansy looked quite amazed,

"Did you say the incantation? I sure didn't hear it."

"No." said Hermione distractedly, vanishing the orb and returning her attention to the book, "These spells seemed to be based entirely on Somatics."

Ron's eyebrow crunched up in confusion,

"Soma-whats-its?"

"Somatics." Hermione answered, "Hand gestures and thought."

"Oh, this could be challenging for him, then." Pansy joked in whisper to Harry. The couple broke into a silent fit of giggles.

"And you figured this all out in what... five minutes?" asked Harry, amazed at how quickly she learned it all.

"She is brilliant." Ron admitted.

"It's says all of it here... everything is translated in the margins." Hermione said, shoving the book into Harry's arms. Harry, unsuspecting, let out an oomph.

"Try the fire spell." she commanded, staring into his eyes.

Glancing down at the page, Harry read the messily scrawled text of the margins. The original texts on the page could not possibly be mistaken for any magic they had used, the language did not look remotely Latin.

Holding his hand out as Hermione did, he focused hard on thinking the incantation. Staring at his hand expectantly, he watched as... nothing happened.

Bunching his fist together and spreading his hand out once more, he tried again. Fire erupted in the palm of his hand.

In shock he quickly closed his hand, sending a searing pain down his nerves as the flame licked his palm.

"Ouch!"

"That was rather stu... daft of you, Harry." Pansy laughed.

"Thanks." mumbled Harry, massaging his burned palm. "I don't need reminding."

Placing his hand in the book to preserve the page, Harry turned to the cover. The text was hand-written in a fading golden ink.

"This book is ancient. It's got to be older than Hogwarts itself."

Hermione smiled,

"I think it may even predate Latin-based magic."

* * *

**A/N: Warning, Some Minor Suggestive Content  
**  
Harry dreamt peacefully of the ocean waves beating against him as he lay bare-chested in the sand.

This, however, was unbeknownst to the female standing at his side, who had twice now tried to shake him awake. Utilizing her next weapon in her arsenal, she whipped out her wand and sprayed water in his face.

He still did not wake.

Slightly irritated, she ignored her hesitation and climbed atop him and began to tickle his sides.

She waited a while before giving up on that method, too. Man, was he in a deep sleep.

Leaning over him, she placed her left hand to steady herself on his bare chest and placed her right on his cheek softly. She leaned inward and gave him a chaste kiss on his soft lips...

It got a reaction out of him, alright.

But not at all what she expected. He sleepily wrapped her arms around her back and pulled her closer to him. Loosing what little balance she had separating her body from his, she collapsed on top of him as he deepened the kiss, sampling her flavor.

His tongue slipping sensuously into her mouth, she lost what little control she had left and let her desperate tongue join the duel with his. She let out a little sigh as he closed the kiss and smiled.

"Mornin' Pans." he said, opening his eyes. Seeing her, he fell from the bed and quickly grabbed his glasses. Her body, which had been atop him just previously, crashed on top of his.

She raced to her feet and brushed herself off nervously.

"Hermione?!"

"Sorry for the deception, Harry." she said nervously with a small voice, averting her eyes from his gaze, "I needed to talk to you... privately... and... well I tried shaking you, tickling you... I even sprayed water in your face... you didn't wake. I... got... a little carried away..."

"You kissed me!"

"I'm sorry." she pleaded, biting her lower lip in her normal, extremely cute way. Her were eyes stricken with embarrassment.

"You're really good." he said softly. This was not at all the reaction she was expecting. She felt her cheeks warm instantly. She knew she was blushing, thank goodness for the poor lighting.

"Don't let Ronald or Pansy hear you say that." she said, reaching an arm out to help Harry to his feet. "Besides, I didn't come here to get into your pants."

She mumbled something incoherent that sounded very much like, "however tempting that may be."

"I need to talk you," she said shakily with a glance at Ron's sleeping form, "Privately."

She took his hand and led him into the quartet common room and pulled him into the love seat beside her.

She stayed quiet for only a moment, then whispered,

"Do you love Pansy?"

"Very much so, yes." Harry replied, "Is everything okay, Hermione?"

There was an awkward silence as Hermione's face lost its color.

"... how do you know?" she queried innocently.

"Are you okay, Hermione?" Harry asked, wiping a single tear from her cheek.

Sniffling, Hermione threw herself into Harry's arms and cried.


	5. The Reason She's Crying

Hermione lay wrapped in Harry's arms, crying as she had never done before. Harry rocked her gently, rubbing her back lovingly as she sobbed.

Harry kissed her forehead and gently caressed her cheek.

"Hermione," he whispered softly, stroking her hair as she sobbed, "You can tell me anything."

Hermione's crying did not die down, she continued to sob uncontrollably.

"Hermione," he whispered once again. Hearing how he was saying her name sent a chill down his spine, "It's okay."

Her breath became slightly more steady, but she remained crying nevertheless. He continued to stroke her back and, once again, kissed her forehead.

"It's okay." he whispered.

"I know," she cried, her voice broken frequently by her gasps for air in between sobs, "It's Ron."

He had known for a while now that their constant arguing was getting to her.

"We fight... all the time." she sobbed, "And be can be... he's so..." she broke once again helplessly into tears, trying to calm herself, she wiped her tears on Harry's bare chest.

She jumped slightly as she realized he was still without a shirt. She did not mind him like this... even kind of liked it. But he was taken... she forced herself to do the right thing against everything the beat of her heart was telling her.

"I'm sorry!" she said, gasping.

She covered her mouth and raised her wand. A shirt flew down the stairs from the boy's dormitory. She caught it and quietly pulled it over his head.

Harry didn't bother to protest that he could dress himself. He didn't mind that she was doing it. She was his best friend, so what did it matter if she saw a little more of him?

As the shirt finished sliding down his torso, Hermione once again buried her face into his chest and sobbed.

"It's okay, Hermione."

She raised her head slightly. The tears welling up in her eyes sparkled in the torchlight of the common room. She smiled weakly.

Her words just poured out of her, she had to get several things off her chest.

"Harry, Ron's been terrible to me. He's constantly ridiculing me or mocking me. It's like I'm just his snogging partner."

Harry fought the urge to defend his friend and simply listened.

"Now... I'm not even sure if I still love him.." her voice trailed off, "if I ever loved him... You love Pansy... how do you _know_?"

"Pansy and I have had our share of fights," Hermione looked at him incredulously, "Okay, so we've had very few, but we've had them nonetheless."

Harry looked deep into her shiny brown eyes. She, usually the one with all the answers, was left waiting for his next words.

"If you truly love one another, you will always find yourselves coming back. You'll forgive one another and move on."

"We're not even apart," she pointed out, "_yet._" she added in undertone.

"Have you confronted him about it?"

"I've tried to." she groaned, "Six times!"

"Six?" Harry looked a little disbelieving.

"Yes." she replied firmly, she sighed. "But each time I try to talk to him... he just starts snogging me."

"So..." Harry thought hard about how to say this inoffensively, "Your issue is that... you have problems communicating."

"Oh, we communicate." Hermione snorted. "Loudly."

Harry shook his head and grinned,

"I mean talk, like civilized people." Harry hugged her, "like we're doing now."

Hermione looked back slightly to look into Harry's eyes.

"That's... not the only problem." suddenly, her voice was incredibly shaky, but, not from crying, from nerves. She looked away briefly, then returned her eyes to Harry's, "I.. I think... I think I'm in love with you."

She lowered her eyes as the impact of what she had said hit her. She was blushing extremely brightly, a lurid shade of red, she couldn't look in his eyes for fear of melting.

Kindly, Harry placed his hand on her cheek and gently turned her head to face his.

"Not all love is unrequited."

Hermione's mouth shot open from the mere shock of his words. Closing the already small gap between them, Harry covered her mouth with his and wrapped his hands around her, feeling her soft hair and smooth back.

My... that tongue... the things she could do with that tongue.

Harry passionately ended the kiss with one final sampling of her lips as he broke the embrace, gasping for air.

"Did I mention that you're good?" Harry asked, suddenly the grins wiped from both their faces.

"I'm breaking up with Ron." she said as she caught her breath.

"You know I can't just..." Harry began, Hermione interrupted,

"I know." she grinned, Harry suddenly felt very guilty. "Don't worry. We'll keep it our little secret."

Was this Hermione Granger being a manipulative, deceitful seductress? My, my. Perhaps Ron had rubbed off on her some. Whether for good or bad Harry didn't want to decide.


	6. Regress and Regret

Last night had Harry rather worried. Hermione had been a wreck... completely not herself. They had shared two kisses... the first, quite unintentional. The second, he reminded himself, entirely his fault.

He could have left her as she was, continued to hug her until she slept as he had done on so many occasions with Pansy, but he decided to leak his feelings for her. She had done so for him, what was there to lose?

Pansy.

The thought haunted him. He hoped Hermione would not blab to Pansy, but, then again, she was usually one to keep her word.

But Hermione... what would Hermione do? He had just admitted his feelings for her... they were minor... nothing like he had for Pansy... but they still took control of him... perhaps her vulnerability made him vulnerable.

He wanted to destroy himself for doing it. Why was it so hard to just keep his mouth shut? To control himself?

Then again, why had she had such a hard time controlling herself? She had spent three years fussing with Ron before realizing her love for him...

And now she was going to break-up with him? It would be Harry's fault!

Oh, shit. He was in some trouble. Ron would be angry... he lost him his girlfriend that Harry _knew _he loved, despite what Hermione had said she believed. Pansy would be pissed... he had basically just cheated on her! And for what?

A kiss. _She was good, _he thought bitterly.

That still didn't justify it. And, to top everything off, he now would have Hermione baying for his affections when he would be begging Pansy for forgiveness.

What the hell was Hermione up to?

Since when had she been so forward about her feelings... for anyone?

And what excuse would he give to Pansy for kissing her best friend?

_Oh, she looked sad, I just had to. _

She'd never accept it. Harry sighed and crawled from his bed. Already dressed from his talk with Hermione the night before, he took a glance at Ron's bed.

He was gone. Probably down in the common room waiting for his morning snog. And because of Harry, he'd get a broken heart instead.

Harry smashed his head on the wall repeatedly. Anything to punish himself for this. Man was he feeling a little like Dobby...

"Harry?" a voice called from the door.

Harry jumped and spun around. It was Pansy.

"We need to talk."

Oh, damn. She knew. Hermione had blabbed.


	7. The Morning He Never Expected

"_We need to talk" she had said.  
_  
She walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder and looked up into his eyes.

He started at her blankly, waiting for the break-up to come. He just stood like a guilty child, waiting to be told he'd done wrong.

She slapped him.

"You haven't kissed me yet, what's wrong with you?" she hissed.

His heart jumped. Maybe she didn't know! That didn't make him feel any better about doing it...

His kissed her lovingly and melted into her. He loved her so much. He had risked dying for her multiple times to save her. He _loved_ her so much.

As they pulled from the kiss, Pansy spoke.

"We need to go comfort Hermione." she began, "She's really panicked. She remembers staring up at her curtains last night and next thing she knew she was leaving the common room to come back. She says there's a hole in her memory..."

A hole in her memory?

That sounded oddly familiar.

"A hole in her memory?"

Pansy nodded.

"Ron's down there right now. She didn't sleep at all last night, she says. He's comforting her all he can, but she's still a wreck, and she won't even talk to me."

Harry took Pansy's hand and walked with her down to the common room where Hermione was crying even worse than she had been the previous night. They weren't broken sobs, they weren't soft cries, it was full-blown wailing.

Pansy in tow, Harry walked to the seat where Ron sat, in full embrace of the crying brunette.

Ron actually was being kind to her. Very kind. Maybe that's why she hadn't broken up with him?

"I'm scared Ron," she cried, "I can't remember anything! I was gone for at least two hours!" she shrieked, "You know what happened... happ...happened to G..G...Ginny whe...when she w...was under th..the contr...control of the Diary."

"Have you been writing in any mysterious diaries that write back to you?" Ron asked.

"No." she sobbed, her head rested sideways on Ron's chest. For some reason, her entire emotional outpouring was different than it had been with Harry...

"Then we can rule that out."

Harry then remembered his lesson yesterday on the unforgivable curses with Professor Moody.

"What if it was the Imperius Curse?"

Suddenly, Hermione shot up and threw her her hand in Harry's direction, her wand extended and digging into his throat. Her eyes were glazed and she wasn't shedding a tear.

Pansy lunged at her, causing Hermione to crash to the ground as a Reductor Curse blew across the room and at a brick in the fireplace.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" shrieked Pansy, pinning Hermione to the ground, kicking her wand away from her.

Ron panicked. He was torn between saving his girlfriend who had just about decapitated his friend and destroying the girl who was hurting her.

Hermione's fist met Pansy's jaw with unheard of force. Before Harry knew it, the frost orb that had been in her hand only last night returned and hit Pansy square in the face.

Pansy screamed in pain.

Harry thought of anything he could to stop what was happening. He remembered Hermione first year...

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Hermione's body when completely rigid. Pansy, crying in the corner, wiping the icicles from her face and wincing as she held her jaw, fell backward from her kneeling position.

"We need to get both of you to Hospital Wing." Harry said, bringing Pansy to her feet and lifting her into his arms.

Ron followed suit with his stiff girlfriend. They walked down the halls in silence as they made their way to the hospital wing.


	8. The Master's Remedy

Harry sat next to Pansy as Madam Pomfrey tended to her wounds. She was not badly injured as she had been last year, but was in pain nonetheless.

When Madam Pomfrey had been told of what had happened to cause the injuries and just why Hermione was Petrified, she sent for Dumbledore immediately.

Pansy was still quite uneasy toward Dumbledore, but relayed the events to him as quickly as she could. Madam Pomfrey had mended her jaw first.

Dumbledore sat on the far side of her bed, across from Harry, listening to Pansy's every word.

"Imperius Curse?" he mumbled, "That's illegal."

"We know." Harry and Pansy said in unison. They laughed at the fact their thoughts and words had led them to say the same thing at the very same time.

Dumbledore slowly stood and walked to Hermione.

"Finite." Hermione lost her stiffness and instantly began crying.

"What's happening to me?" she bawled, placing her head in her hands.

"Someone," Dumbledore began, patting her awkwardly, "Is taking advantage of your friendships with Mr. Potter and Ms. Parkinson."

Pansy hissed and dug her nails into the bedding.

"CALL ME MRS. POTTER, DAMN IT!" shouted Pansy from the next bed over. Dumbledore chuckled.

"Someone is taking advantage of your friendship with the _Potters_," he chuckled at the thought, "and his trying to control you."

"Control me? With what?"

"An illegal curse."

"The Imperius curse?" she mumbled, trying to fight back tears. She, as had happened several times before, failed miserably.

"Yes." said Dumbledore firmly. "Which is why I had Mr. Alishir leave you that book."

"Mr. Alishir? _He _left us _Lezmagiosancia_?" she asked, her voice was much like that of a little child.

"Ah, yes." he smiled, "I do seem to remember that _Mrs. Potter _over there sustained injuries from your rather proficient freezing charm."

Hermione put on a face of terror.

"I hurt her?" she said in a very small voice. She started to cry again and turned to Pansy, "Merlin, I am so sorry."

Pansy waved a dismissing arm and Hermione turned back to Dumbledore.

"You see, I usually have hunches." he said, "And usually those hunches are correct hunches." he smiled, "And, I figured, with all of you in a confined space, you would be safer with one another."

He sighed slightly.

"But I knew that just this kind of thing could happen. I asked Mr. Alishir to provide some of his knowledge to help you fight off anything that could happen. In particular I wanted you to be able to fight off the Confundus and Imperius Curses."

Hermione shuddered.

"The book contains simple preventions and ... well... I'm not sure 'cures' is the word, but 'cures' for each."

Hermione absentmindedly created a frost orb in her left hand and begun playing with it.

"I love the way this magic feels," she said.

"It may come to be your greatest advantage against those who would be low enough to attack you without your wands. Dumbledore pulled something from his bag below him.

It was the book.

He opened it and handed it to Hermione.

"I suggest all of you memorize these pages." he said loudly, rising from his bed. "I hoped you would not need it, but, it would seem I was wrong."

"Should we be moved into entirely separate dorms altogether?" asked Hermione slowly.

"You are far more likely to do far less damage when someone you love is with you. They..." he thought for a moment, "know how to get to you."

He then pointed to the page of the book Hermione had open on her waist.

Dumbledore left the Hospital Wing and Madam Pomfrey sauntered back. Two tiny figures raced in as Dumbledore left.

"Nick!" squealed Hermione, raising herself from her bed, "Nicki" she hugged her siblings lovingly. My was this a different Hermione than they had seen this morning... but it was the one they had known for just over three years.


	9. The Dream, Or So She Thought

"_You will do it." said an awful voice within her head. She fought it as much as she could. It wouldn't leave her. Her eyes rolled in their sockets as she resisted the ever-more-demanding urge to claw them out. "Kill him!"_

_Her legs forced themselves straight, her body jerked to a standing position and she raised her wand,_

_"I'm sorry, Harry." she cried, fighting for control of her own body with every inch of her heart and mind, "I can't..." she gritted her teeth and tasted blood._

_"I love you, Pansy."_

_Then, there was a flash of green light.  
_  
Pansy awoke with a loud scream. Sitting bolt upright in her bed, she began crying uncontrollably as Hermione had done just over a week before.

Hearing her dorm mate race to her bedside, she flew back quickly and tried to pretend she was asleep... maybe to convince Hermione that it was just a figment of her imagination.

But Pansy couldn't close her eyes without reliving that horrible nightmare.

"Hermione!" she croaked. Fighting to control her tears, Pansy lost control of her breathing and quickly slipped into an anxiety attack.

Two masculine forms raced into the room and shot over Pansy's body. Harry raised his hands over body and held them there for only a brief moment when Pansy's body lost tension and her breathing returned to normal.

"What did you do to her?" asked Hermione.

"Calming Charm."

"From the book?" she queried.

"I've memorized it." he said flatly.

Hermione started at him. It had only been eight days since her incident with the Imperius Curse and it had Harry paranoid enough to memorize an entire spell book... if only she could get him to to that for his classes...

Pansy stayed calm but kept her eyes from Harry's. She couldn't bare to see him, not after what she had just seen.

"Pansy, please tell me what happened."

She just shook her head.

"Pansy, please tell me what happened." he repeated.

She cried quietly a shook her head again.

"Pansy, tell me or I'll rip it out of you." he said, not unkindly, but certainly not nicely.

Hermione and Ron both stared at Harry cautiously, each drawing their wand at him. Even Pansy had turned to look at him rather apprehensively.

"I'm not under the Imperius Curse." he growled. "I just want to know what's got her so worked up." he kneeled down and kissed Pansy's forehead gently.

She wasn't about to speak.

"I'm sorry, Pansy." he cried to her, asking her one last time, "I can't help you if I don't know what is hurting you. This might hurt a little. I'll try to be careful."

He touched his fingers to her forehead and saw a race of color and sound. The entire dream ran through Pansy's mind again, she wanted to die.

"_You will do it." said an awful voice within her head. She fought it as much as she could. It wouldn't leave her. Her eyes rolled in their sockets as she resisted the ever-more-demanding urge to claw them out. "Kill him!"_

_Her legs forced themselves straight, her body jerked to a standing position and she raised her wand,_

_"I'm sorry, Harry." she cried, fighting for control of her own body with every inch of her heart and mind, "I can't..." she gritted her teeth and tasted blood._

_"I love you, Pansy."_

_Then, there was a flash of green light._

Harry fell backward from the strain, but pulled himself up again quickly. He raced to Pansy's side and pulled her into his arms.

"I'm sorry." he whispered into her ear. He kissed her forehead once again rocking her back and forth.

"I'm sorry." she echoed.

"For what?" Harry asked quizzically. Pansy again did not dare meet his eyes. "It was just a nightmare, you'll be okay."

"Will I?" she cried, losing what little composure she had left.

"Yes. You will." said Harry firmly. "Because I'll make sure of it."


	10. From the Goblet of Fire

That Thursday came faster than any of them could have expected. It felt that no sooner had they calmed a panicking Pansy than they had walked into the Great Hall for the announcement of the Triwizard Champions.

Taking seats next to Hermione's sister and brother, the quartet looked up at the glowing goblet in the front of the Hall. Dumbledore and Alishir stood behind it watching it anxiously.

Centros Alishir spoke,

"With each time the Goblet glows red, rather than blue, we'll have the name of a champion." he sounded quite excited. "Each champion will rise and follow Mr. Bagman to the back where we will begin to talk to you about your future as a Triwizard Champion. Good luck!"

Dumbledore walked forward to the Goblet, and as he did so, it glowed red for its first announcement.

Catching the parchment as it fluttered out, Dumbledore read the name aloud,

"The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour."

The beautiful witch from their entrance ceremony walked, properly carried, over to Mr. Bagman and left the room through a door out of Harry's line of sight.

The Goblet glowed once again, and, again, Dumbledore caught the parchment as it landed between his fingers,

"The champion for Durmstrang is Viktor Krum."

The Quidditch player Ron had drooled over upon his entry followed the same path to were Fleur had gone just a moment before.

After another brief moment of blueness, the goblet glowed a vivid red and ejected its third parchment.

"The champion for Hogwarts is Cedric Diggory."

The Hufflepuff seeker Harry had lost to when attacked by Dementors just last year rose, with a large smile on his face, proudly marched to where the others had gone.

Dumbledore walked away from the Goblet and allowed Mr. Alishir to talk once more,

"We now have our champions! The first trial of their skill will be held on the twenty-fourth of..."

The goblet glowed red once again. A small, still smoldering piece of parchment shot out from it and raced toward Dumbledore's hand. He only barely caught it.

"Harry Potter."

Pansy and Hermione turned to him, both with looks of disgust and frustration.

"As if you weren't in enough danger!" hissed Pansy.

"I didn't put my name in the goblet!" he defended. "I'm not of age... I just want to be with you!"

That softened Pansy.

"Well, if you didn't put your name in the goblet would you like to explain..." Hermione began.

"HARRY POTTER." the voice of Centros Alishir rattled the cutlery on the tables.

Harry cringed hearing his name. Hermione just waved him to go. Ron looked at him with pure loathing.

"I DIDN'T PUT MY..." Harry began to yell, but his hand was grabbed by his head of house, and he was forced to keep pace with one very angry witch.

* * *

"C'est inacceptable!" Growled an angry voice trailing behind Dumbledore as he ran down the stairs. "Je nous exige choisis encore!" the voice kept nagging in clear French, "Il est seulement un bébé ! Il est trop jeune!" Dumbledore growled at her to hush but she kept going, "C'est injuste! Vous êtes juste donnant à Hogwarts les doubles les chances! Beauxbatons et Durmstrang doivent avoir un deuxième champion aussi!"

"Harry, did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire?" he said to Harry, quite clearly agitated.

"No, sir."

"Did you ask anyone else to do it for you?"

"No, sir."

"You're absolutely sure?"

"Yes, sir."

"But of course, 'e is lying!"

"'E is onlee un bébé!" jeered Fleur from behind Krum.

Dumbledore turned to Alishir,

"He surely doesn't have to compete?"

"The Goblet of Fire constitutes a magical binding contract. I'm afraid he has no choice. He is, as of this moment, a Triwizard Champion."


	11. Rita's Big Miss

Quiet as it had been, the morning, young and presumably peaceful, failed to live up to its duties. The morning had been anything but peaceful.

An owl flew in through the window at nearly five-thirty. Harry, trying to ignore the owl, covered his face with his pillow. It worked well until the bloody pigeon began to make mince meet his right pinkie finger.

Huffing unappreciatively, Harry rose from his bed, the last traces of his dream with Pansy fading from memory.

Angrily snatching the letter from the owl, he opened the envelope and read it's contents.

"Triwizard Champion,

Your presence is requested at the Great Hall for a photo-shoot and interview. Please arrive immediately. Thank you.

Signed, Centros Alishir; Head of International Magical Cooperation _and  
_Rita Skeeter, _The Daily Prophet"_

Groaning, Harry rose from his puffy mattress and sleepily dressed himself. Before leaving, he made sure he told Pansy of his whereabouts, or there'd be hell to pay later.

Creeping up the ramp to the Girl's dorm, Harry passed Hermione's delicately sleeping form and walked to the girl in his dreams.

Leaning over her, he kissed her forehead and whispered to his stirring beauty,

"Mornin' Pans."

She leaned upward for a quick kiss on the lips.

"I've got to go to some interview for the tournament."

Pansy sat up and hugged him

"You know who the reporter is?" she asked groggily, rubbing her eyes. Harry handed the letter to her.

Her eyes bulged and she stood, racing to her drawers for clothing.

"Don't talk to her if you can help it. I'll be down there shortly." she stood from her bed and pecked him lovingly on the cheek, "Go on, you're going to be late."

Harry turned to leave, but took one last look at the girl before him.

"Pansy?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you." she smiled.

* * *

"Hello!" said the obnoxiously scrawny, gray-blonde haired witch in front of him as she passed by each of the champions, greedily shaking their hands, "I'm Rita Skeeter, I write for the _Daily Prophet."_

She stood proudly in front of the group.

"But it's not me we're here to talk about." as she smiled a demented smile. Merlin, this whack-job was possessed.

There was a flash of a camera light as her photographer clicked several shots of the group.

"It's you!" she glowed, walking by each of them, "What lurks beneath those curls?" she tugged at Cedric's hair, "Does bravery hide beneath those cheeks?" she roughly patted Fleur's amazingly round tush. Fleur squeaked. "In short, what makes a champion tick?" She licked her lips menacingly, "Me, Myself, and I want to know. Not to mention, my raved readers."

There was absolute silence while she ran her mouth.

"Shall we start with the youngest?" she said, grabbing Harry's arm. "Lovely."

With a firm tug she took him up to the staff table and forced him to sit across from her.

"Here you sit, a mere boy of twelve..." she began as her quill scribbled noisily beside her.

"I'm fourteen." he corrected. She ignored him.

"...about to compete in the most dangerous student competition known to wizard-kind. Concerned?"

Harry stared at the quill as it made a final point to mark the end of a sentence.

"Just ignore the quill, Harry." she grinned, "Do you think it was the trauma of your past that made you so keen to enter such a dangerous competition?"

"I... didn't enter." he mumbled, he finally felt a little intimidated by this nutter.

"Of course you didn't." she winked, "Everyone loves a rebel, Harry."

Pansy charged up from the entrance of the Hall and walked behind Harry, resting her hands on his shoulders,

"Pansy!" Harry said with an exasperated cry, "Thank Merlin you're here!" he stood and kissed her gently on the cheek.

Rita's brow furled.

"Oh, and who might this be?"

"The rebel." hissed Pansy, waving her arm in the same dismissive movement she had given Hermione. But Harry knew she wasn't just dismissing Rita Skeeter.

Especially when the reporter's notes erupted in a ball of fire.

"Those were my notes!" she squeaked, adjusting her horn-rimmed glasses.

"What do you need notes for? You'll just concoct another one of your bullshit stories."

Both Rita and Harry stood, staring blankly at the sassy Pansy.

"And don't try me, Skeeter. You'll regret the day that you did."

"And who the hell _are you?_" Rita growled, pulling her quill from the air.

"Your worst nightmare."

Pansy took Harry's arm and led him out of the Great Hall.

"Thanks" he whispered as he slowly walked her into a wall and kissed her.

In the Hall, Rita, demented grin ever-present, began to scribble her new notes for her so wonderfully juicy new story.


	12. Pranks, Dragons, and Emeralds

The next morning in the Great Hall as the quartet took their seats for breakfast, several dozen or so owls came flying in to deliver the morning post.

Harry, as was custom, received no post, but Hedwig flew down to visit anyways. Ron, however, got his copy of the _Daily Prophet_.

Nick Granger walked to a seat beside Libra Malfoy, and Nicki to a seat at his side, and sat down. All the way down.

Through the chair and onto the ground. Nicki managed to catch herself on the large table before she crashed to the floor, but, Nick, was not quite so lucky.

Libra sprung from her chair and offered a hand to Nick, who took it greedily and stood.

Libra and Nicki glared daggers at Fred and George as Nick grabbed two new seats.

"Don't worry, they'll get their just desserts." he said grudgingly, taking his seat after his sister took hers. Fred and George simply laughed through a mouthful of food.

Behind Nick and Libra stood the tall form of none other than Draco Malfoy, scowling at Hermione with a particularly nasty glare, flashing an animated badge on his chest with the words "Potter Stinks", he began to read from the parchment in his hands,

"'Harry Potter, age twelve, suspect entrant to the Triwizard Tournament and player extraordinaire...

... His love interests include but are not limited to...

Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty girl...'"

"Stunningly pretty, her?" Draco laughed maliciously.

Libra, as if on cue, spun around and allowed her fist to meet with her brother's nose.

"That's my boyfriend's sister you're insulting!"

Draco wiped the blood from his nose and ran off, somewhat cowering in fear.

My, Libra wasn't in Gryffindor for no reason. That, my friends, was bravery. (On Libra's part at least.)

"I like her!" Ron clapped, unrolling his copy of the _Prophet. _"Hermione is pretty." he agreed, squeezing her hand kindly in reassurance. "Let's see what else she came up with."

"'a stunningly pretty girl whom Harry is not seen out of company with. Gregory Goyle makes it known that he 'expects the children any minute'. One can only assume that the two are quite close.

Ginny Weasley, whom schoolmate Vincent Crabbe reveals, 'often waits for him to walk by in the halls for a good snog'."

Ron gagged, Ginny lowered her head into her arms began to cry.

"'And thirdly a Ms. Pansy Parkinson, who, sources report, demands people call her by _his_ surname, Potter. Draco Malfoy recalls, "She became quite cross with our headmaster last year when he 'mistakenly' called her Ms. Parkinson. She just about threw him out the window. If I hadn't been there to stop it...'"

"What a load of crap." Hermione growled, preparing to yank the paper from his hands.

"There's another article!" Ron said, scanning quickly down the page, "This one seems to be just about you, Pansy."

"'Pansy Potter, Is There Anything Hotter?'" he read from the text.

"Alright, who did this?" laughed Ron, tossing the paper to Pansy. "It says Rita wrote it... but... there's no bashing at all... Pansy?"

Pansy smiled.

"I can be _persuasive_." she said, adding to her remark with twin orbs of fire floating above her palms.

"Well," said Harry awkwardly, "Now that the world knows..." Harry scribbled something out of Pansy's line of vision and tied it to Hedwig quickly, petting her as just before she flew off.

Nick tapped a conspicuous rhythm on the table.

Peeves flew into the hall, carrying two pails in either hand. Flying over Fred and George he dumped the buckets on each of their heads in turn.

Their skins instantly went a sickening blue.

"Enjoy?" Nick said as Peeves knocked on the buckets on their heads.

Removing the pail from his head, Fred turned and glared at Peeves,

"You're supposed to be on our side!"

Peeves cackled maniacally.

* * *

"Dragons!?" said Harry through the invisibility cloak, "You must be joking!"

"Ron didn't tell ya he helped his brother move 'em up from Romania?"

"No, he didn't tell me anything. If it weren't for Hermione I'd'nt've even known to come here."

* * *

Harry tapped nervously on the small parcel in his right pocket.

"Dragons?" breathed Pansy the following day as they walked down to Hogsmeade Village.

Harry nodded slowly. Pansy jumped on him and kissed him wherever she could.

"Oh, Merlin, I hope you survive this." she was tearing, but held back the stream.

"I will." he said reassuringly, "We'll do all the research we can. Hermione'd be more than willing to help."

Pansy nodded and kissed his neck. Taking her hand, he led her down to the Three Broomsticks, trailing Ron and Hermione.

"Hey, guys, we'll catch up with you in a second," he called after Ron and Hermione, their bodies fading into the distance as they waved acknowledgment.

Harry took her hand and led her away from the cobblestone path and past the shrubs surrounding it.

"I want to ask you something." he said nervously, sitting down near a tall willow. _(Not the Whomping Willow.)_ She followed his actions and sat beside him, to his left.

Pansy looked into his eyes as he wrapped one arm around her, the other diving deep into his pocket and wrapping around the small box inside.

"I know we're kind of... young." he began, "But... seeing as neither of us have parents to stop us... and I love you... and..."

"I love you." she chimed in.

"...and we're always together and we very, very rarely fight." Harry finally got hit with the nerves, his words and thoughts strayed all over. "We're... just happy, I guess... we... _need_ each other..."

"Spill it before I shag you." she growled playfully.

"Oh, maybe I'll just keep quiet, then." he joked, she glared at him. Pulling the small velvet box from his pocket, he continued, "What I really wanna say is..." he opened it to reveal a marvelous platinum ring with three large gems; a ruby, diamond, and emerald, "Pansy, will you marry me?"

"Oh, you'd better not die now, or I'll kill you myself!" she laughed, throwing herself onto him, "Yes!" she kissed him with every ounce of passion she could muster, finally knocking him backward as she fell on top of him.


	13. She Wants to Know

A few days after Harry's hairy proposal to Pansy, Harry sat alone with Hermione in the library, very consciously avoiding looking at any part of her but her eyes.

Pansy, unfortunately, had class this period, as only the Gryffindors had off... and Ron... well... we'll leave his whereabouts silent, as I'm sure no one cares...

Okay... fine... he was in the lavatory! Happy?

"I wish I could remember." said Hermione distractedly, flipping through a book entitled _"Men Who Love Dragons Too Much"_. Harry didn't need to ask, he knew what she was talking about.

"No, you don't." he replied a little too quickly.

"You already know, don't you?" she had read him like a child's book. Quickly and easily.

He nodded.

"What ever I did was to you..." her voice trailed as she shuddered.

"With me." he corrected, averting his gaze.

"With?" he gasped and covered her mouth. Her eyes widened immensely. "We didn't?"

"No, you're still pure." he assured her. "I exercised _enough _self-control not to take..."

She walked up to him calmly and turn his head to face hers.

"Please," she begged, "I need to know."

"Hermione, I'd really prefer not to."

"Why not?!" she demanded.

"You'd never forgive me." he said in an extremely small voice, a tear betraying him as it rolled down his cheek. "I'm not proud of what I did."

"You were Imperiused, too?" she asked randomly.

"No. As far as I can remember... and... I can... I acted of my own free will." another tear raced down his cheek to join the other.

"Please." she begged.

"Please don't make me." he pleaded. She ignored his pleas and pulled his hand to her temple.

Color and sound raced through Hermione's mind as the events of the night were restored to her forethought. She now knew what had transpired.

Pulling his hand away carefully to prevent any pain left by pulling out of her mind too quickly, he sat down on the nearby sofa and put his face in his hands.

Hermione began to cry and did the same, sitting next to him hesitantly.

"I'm sorry." he said repeatedly, but her crying was never audible, just a soft sob.

"It's not your fault.. not entirely." she sniffed.

"I did it... of my own free will." he admitted, trying to force the truth upon her as though it would make things better.

"No..." she lied, "I could see in your eyes. They were a little glazed."

"I was just saddened to see you in pain." he mumbled.

"You are now." she said, examining his revealing facial expression, "It's not the same."

She shook her head and repeated, "Your eyes looked glazed."

"Then why do I remember everything?" he asked, turning to look into her soft brown eyes. She had a look of caring on her face, despite the fact that she should be quite cross with him.

Thank Merlin she was a caring witch.

"I don't know." she whispered.

Harry just sat there, losing himself in her eyes as his thoughts strayed to that night.

"Kiss me." she said suddenly.

He hesitated, but friendly kissed her on her forehead.

"On my lips." she demanded.

"No." he said flatly.

"You were being controlled." she said forcefully.

"I..."

"Just accept it. I will." she leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, by the way."

"Hmm?"

He was just about to ask what she had meant when he remembered complimenting her delicious kisses...

"Oh... still friends then?" he asked apprehensively.

"Definitely." she smiled, "But definitely _just _friends." she hugged him. "Even if we did share a very special kiss."

Harry noticed an ugly, reddish beetle crawling around in her hair. Pulling it out, he threw it across the room and rubbed Hermione's back appreciatively.

She was a true friend.

Even if he had screwed up.

"You're terribly romantic, by the way." she added as she left the hug, "It's no wonder why you manage to keep Pansy around."


	14. Of Duels and Summoning

Harry sat across the room from a perfectly content Hermione and Ron. They were enjoying one another's faces...

"Guys... seriously..."

Ron and Hermione broke apart, Hermione moderately content to rest her head on Ron's chest.

"I've been thinking," said Pansy next to Harry suddenly. Harry nearly shat himself, she'd been rather quiet for nearly an hour. "We've all learned how to use this magic.. right... but... we don't really use it but for fun. What if we were to... I don't know... duel each other... make each other better with it?"

Hermione looked quite surprised, recognizing a good idea when she heard one. She never gave Pansy enough credit for her intellect, really.

"That's a good idea." said Hermione excitedly. "Who's up first?"

"Hmm..." Pansy began, "I know... you nearly killed him when you were possesed, how 'bout you fight Harry?"

Hermione looked a little apprehensive, but went along with it. Walking outside to the empty Quidditch pitch, Harry and Hermione stood approximately five paces apart, turned away from one another.

"On one."

"Three." said Ron merrily.

"Two." added Pansy.

"One." Ron said finally. Hermione wheeled around instantly and shot a freezing charm at Harry. Thinking quickly, he shielded himself using a air suppression charm, causing the air in front of him to compact into a shield. (Harry had learned previously that using this spell against fire was not a good idea as it produced an exploding effect quite as severe as Ron's temper...)

Throwing a stunning jinx as she hesitated, he caught her off-guard and she froze solid, hit by the full force of the spell.

"I win." he said simply. Walking over her and waving his arm to remove the jinx.

"Lucky shot." she hissed. "Another go?" she queried.

"Sure." laughed Harry, returning to his initial location.

Harry wheeled around and waited for the countdown to reach one. Immediately, he vanished.

"What the...?" everyone echoed.

Harry appeared behind Hermione in a silky blue fog.

Hermione turned around just fast enough to see him raise his hands to finish his stunning jinx.

Ron rushed over to Hermione and removed the jinx himself.

"What the hell was that?" squeaked Ron. "That was cool!"

"The book calls it 'Blinking'." Harry responded. "Hardly an appropriate name for it, in my opinion."

Hermione grimaced.

"I really have no chance against you." she whined, "You really did memorize that book. I thought you were exaggerating."

"I'm surprised you haven't." Harry smiled as she stood and pointed accusingly at him.

"I've been a little tied up, if you'll remember." she was referring to helping him study for the Triwizard Championship to defeat the dragon.

"Locked in someone's arms." Pansy chided from behind Harry, placing her arms on her fiancé.

Hermione's face lost its expression.

"My turn" said Pansy, her voice full of sultry tones.

As Ron and Hermione walked from their little 'arena', Pansy and Harry turned away from one another, each wheeling around at once.

Harry vanished.

So did Pansy.

Apparently he wasn't the only one that had done more than skim.

They appeared in respective positions to where they'd been just a second before.

Harry rolled his eyes,

"Oh, seems I actually have to _try_."

Hermione glared at him.

Pansy shot off a whip of fire that raced its way to Harry. Harry, remembering how useless his shield would be, quickly Blinked.

Right behind Pansy.

Unfortunately, she had been expecting this.

Spinning around on the heel of her foot, she cast a stunning jinx at him the second he appeared, kissing his frozen form. She smiled,

"I win." she patted his head and un-jinxed him.

"I'm glad you're on my side," Harry said in exasperation.

* * *

"Come on Harry, you can cream me in a duel but can't summon a pillow to you?" Hermione jeered later that day as he practiced the summoning charm once again. "Harry can't do a summoning charm! Harry can't do a summoning charm!" she repeated the words in a sing-song voice. Harry waved once and squelched her. Ron glared at him.

Hermione's smile disappeared as her boyfriend removed the jinx.

"Surely there is some ancient magic that can do the same thing?" Ron queried.

"Not in the book." Harry sighed. Waving his wand once again, he attempted summoning the pillow in Hermione's arms.

And it flew right at him.

Hermione with it. She squeaked in shock and then again in pride.

"You did it, Harry!" she smiled and kissed his forehead. "I knew you could!"

Ron and Pansy both looked quite irritated.


	15. The First Task

"I stand by what I said after you proposed," she laughed, stroking the hair from his eyes, "I will kill you myself if you die." she then grinned widely.

Kissing his cheek, she raced her lips to his and gave him a kiss to rival that he had shared with her after his proposal. Giving him one final, brief hug, she turned and left to wait for Hermione in the stands.**  
**  
Hermione threw her arms around him tightly and whispered,

"If you die, I'll never talk to you again."

She chuckled softly, quickly kissed the corner of his lips and left to join Pansy in the audience.

It hurt him some to see Hermione show little hints of affection. Perhaps her infatuation was not entirely the work of the charm she had been under. Maybe she was just being kind. Either way, it didn't make him feel any better about what he had done that night. Staring off into the stands as the flap to the tent closed, he touched where her lips met his with the tips of his fingers and let his eyes glaze.

"Mr. Potter?" said Centros Alishir suddenly from behind Harry. Harry jumped.

"Don't mean to ruin the moment, but we've got to get started." he spoke quietly to Harry as if he knew what was going on... "Everyone stand in a circle around me," he motioned everyone to do just that, "Now. In this bag rests figures of four very real dragons."

Harry tuned out as he explained the procedure for selection and thought reminiscently about showing Hermione the memory in the library.

"Mr. Potter?" Centros Alishir asked, looking into Harry's eyes as Harry came crashing back to the present.

Harry reached his hand into the bag and grabbed the tail of the miniature dragon inside. Pulling it out, he stared at the golden "four" on its side.

"The Hungarian Horntail." his voice was rather creepy...

"Mr. Krum, you will go first at the sound of the..."

A cannon fired. Filch looked down at the group applologetically.

Viktor Krum left... after about fifteen minutes, Cedric Diggory was called, leaving Harry alone in the tent with a very distracted and distressed Fleur Delacour.

Mumbling something under her breath in French that Harry knew to be self-degrading, a tear rolled down Fleur's rosy cheek.

"You are not. You'll do fine." he let the thought slip into her mind casually... she looked up at him in semi-confusion. Clearly, she believed that he had spoken.

"Parlez-vous français?" she spoke aloud. It was also clear that she did not hear the thought in English.

"Non, mais j'entends vos pensées. Je vois un belle femme qui est affligée. Vous ferez bien. Vous souriez." Her jaw dropped slightly as she realized his mouth had not moved at all, but, all the same, the words entered Fleur's mind like a soothing peace. She stared back blankly into his green eyes.

He didn't like to think of her as his opposition. She was a confused, worried young woman who could use the comfort he could so easily provide.

_(Translation:  
"No, but I hear your thoughts. I see a beautiful woman who's worried and afraid. You'll do well. Smile a little."_

_PS: He's not flirting. He's just trying to raise her spirits a little.)  
_  
She smiled weakly at him, only to have it wiped from her face as her name was called next.

"Thank you." she hugged him and whisked out from the tent, ready to battle her dragon.

If only Harry were ready to battle his. Not just his physical dragon, but also the ferocious creature clawing at his insides telling him to show a little affection in return to Hermione.

But he was engaged. He would hold back anything to keep their relationship. He loved Pansy and wasn't about to give her up._  
_  
As his thoughts strayed to the day of his proposal, his heart lifted. Remembering her smile, the strength and willpower to fight his dragon returned. With this strength, he walked bravely from the tent as his name was finally called.

Staring the Dragon down from across the arena, he focused all he could on keeping calm. Remembering his strategy, he pulled the wand from his pocket and prepared to summon his_ Firebolt.  
_  
He then got an idea.

Why not summon the egg?

"_Accio!_" the egg zoomed toward him, but so did the Dragon.

As the egg hit his chest, he knew the Dragon keepers would not be able to react quickly enough and did the one thing he really didn't want to.

Raising his hand to the air, he formed an air-suppression shield using the ancient magic he had learned in his studies of the ancient book.

Can you say ka-boom?

As the Dragon opened its massive jaws, a jet of fire sprayed all over the compressed air, causing an explosion nearly as loud as volcanic eruption and quite as hot. Hoping to get out of the heat, he Blinked.

And landed in Pansy's lap.

A smile raced to her face as she flung her arms around him.

The judges in the stands, however, looked quite worried. They did not see him.

To make it known he was alive, he raised the egg and shouted at them. Madam Maxime, being the first to see him, caught the attention of the other judges and pointed.

"You did brilliantly!" Pansy squeaked, kissing him.

"I'm going to smell like ash for a month." he droned.

"Yeah, but you'll be my hot ash."

The innuendo was almost to much for Harry... he burst out laughing and hugged her once again.

Hermione just rolled her eyes.

When the judges finally got around to revealing their scores, Harry was ecstatic to discover he'd received nearly a straight ten. And would have had it not been for the 4 from Karkaroff of Durmstrang.**  
**


	16. Of Earth and Fire

Upon returning from defeating the Dragon, Harry was basked in the cheers and praise of Gryffindor House nearly all the way to his dorm. Pansy, seeing the need to lose them before entering, cleverly placed an Air-Suppression shield in the hall till they reached their dorms.

Golden Egg in hand, Harry flopped down in his bed. Rolling it off the side and allowing it to collide with the ground with a loud 'thump', Harry tried to close his eyes.

The lumbering form of his disgruntled dorm mate stood above him, arms folded in a most un-Pansy fashion. His eyes stared Harry down worse than even Mrs. Weasley could manage...

But Ron was not upset with Harry.

"I reckon you'd have to be barking mad to put your own name into that Goblet."

"Caught on, have you?" Harry responded snidely. Ron took the hint and left for his own bed.

The stress of the task clear from his mind, Harry allowed himself to join the world of dreams.

The sky that night was abnormally bright. Perhaps in celebration of such a wondrous triumph. The youngest and least-trained champion came out on top, beating the runner-up, Viktor Krum, by nearly a full point average.

No sooner, it seemed, than Harry had been drifting off to sleep, that Harry had awoken, his arms stretched lazily around the body next to his.

He watched as she inhaled, dreamily skating through the peace of slumber. As his arm was around her shoulder, hers around his waist. They were exceptionally close. Harry could only smile at the joy building inside him. However intentional or not it may have been, they had slept together.

As was bound to happen, feeling his burning green eyes on her soft skin, Pansy stirred.

"I could get used to this." Harry whispered softly, kissing her forehead.

Pansy smiled. Then, realizing where she was and exactly how close their bodies were, she pulled away some.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I just wanted to watch you sleep..." she blushed lightly. Harry pulled Pansy back to him kindly and held her.

"Don't go." he begged.

"You don't mind?" she asked innocently.

"Of course not." Harry said softly, then kissed her forehead. "We're engaged to be married."

Pansy smiled widely, the sparkles twinkling from her gentle eyes could have blinded the sun.

"I really like waking up to you." Harry admitted. "In fact," he stroked her cheek, "I'd like it if you'd sleep here with me from now on."

"You don't think Ron'll care?" she asked apprehensively.

"'Course he will." Harry said simply, "That's why we'll make him take your old bed in your dorm."

Pansy chuckled, allowing Harry a chance for a full-blown kiss. Even half-asleep, Pansy was one hell of a kisser.

"You do realize that we've got a wedding to plan, right?" she said as he left the kiss. He stroked her cheek,

"Let's see, Ron as best man, You'd probably want Hermione as maid of honor..."

They both laughed softly, trying to keep just quiet enough for the red-head in the next bed over from hearing.

"Hmm... I think we'll save some more details for later."

"We should at least set a tentative date." Pansy prodded.

Harry nodded.

"How about.. the Saturday after school lets out?" Harry suggested.

Pansy kissed his lips briefly.

"Perfect."

* * *

Later that Sunday morning, Harry, Pansy, Hermione, and Ron stood staring at one another in the still-empty Quidditch pitch.

"So... Ron..." Harry taunted, "You've not dueled anyone yet. You chicken?"

Ron looked livid, but raced to his dueling spot.

"Get ready to have your ass handed to you." he growled, pocketing his wand.

"Oh, yeah?" Harry teased.

"Yeah."

Harry walked to his position and the girls began their synchronized countdown,

"3...2...1..."

As Harry wheeled around, he found that Ron was already gone. Thinking quickly, Harry Blinked off to the side.

Ron appeared where Harry had been only the second before.

Seeing Ron appear, Harry launched a Stunning Jinx as quickly as he could. Ron, seeing his vulnerability, raised his arms dramatically, and the sand around him rose in to a spiraling barrier, causing Harry's jinx to fizzle.

Casting his arms forward, Ron sent the sand reeling at Harry. Harry Blinked.

Right behind Ron.

Hearing him, Ron spun around, casting a spell that caused vines to wrap themselves around Harry instantly.

Readying himself for a Stunning Jinx, Ron waved his arms around like a fake fortune teller...

Harry Blinked.

"You know that really is a cheap tactic."

Ron was hit full-force with the impact of a Stunning Jinx. Walking smugly in front of his defeated opponent, Harry stared at Ron for a brief moment. Savoring his cocky opponent's defeat.

"Works, doesn't it?" he laughed as he released Ron fron the Jinx.

"I win." Harry said simply, an enormous grin invading his face. Ron never looked more defeated.


	17. Hogsmeade Again

The next morning, the day of their Hogsmeade visit, Harry kissed Pansy good-morning.

"Pansy?"

"Hmm?" she responded a little sleepily, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Get ready to go out." he said quickly, raising from the bed and changing.

"Huh?"

"I've yet to take you out on a proper date." he said, staring at his fiancée's sleepy form, "It's time I remedied that."

"Oh." she said softly.

"Oh?" he repeated questioningly.

"I thought we could make some plans for the wedding." she admitted.

Pulling his arm through the sleeve, he leaned down and kissed her. She rose from the bed and yawned again, then stretched.

"Sure, we can do that too," he gazed into her eyes, "But I want you to have a little fun first."

"Do you want to have sex with me, Harry James Potter?"

"Absolutely." he whispered, wrapping his arms around her immediately after she pulled up and positioned her skirt, "But that actually wasn't what I was talking about."

"I know," she said softly, squeezing his nose, "I was just kidding, but if you want..."

He chastely and briefly kissed her lips.

"You seductress, you."

"Hey, we're practically married, hell, we're engaged!" she lifted her skirt teasingly, then raised her ring up into his eyesight, "I am fully allowed."

Harry slipped his hands slyly down the back of her skirt, kissing her gently as he did so.

She gasped a little and fell into him.

"I will ravage you completely." he said sultrily, "But a little later." he whispered into her ear, "After I ask Hermione about contraceptive spells."

She raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"What would she know about...?" she began. Harry instantly cut her off.

"She knows everything." His thoughts then strayed to Hermione and intimacy, "Okay.. almost everything."

* * *

"Hermione, you know everything." Harry said awkwardly after walking down the stairs, Pansy finishing up her last bits of her morning routine in the dorm above.

"Thanks." she said blandly.

"No... Hermione, I mean that as a complement." he said quickly, trying to remedy his words.

"Oh, thanks." she repeated with a bit more enthusiasm.

He walked to her and whispered as quietly as he could and still remain audible.

"What do you know about contraceptive spells?"

"Harry... are you...?" she gasped, smiling widely regardless.

"No. Not yet." he admitted, "But when we do, I want to be ready."

"Oh, Harry!" she threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek, "Always thinking of what's best for others!" she then sneaked a quick kiss on his lips.

"Hermione, I'm getting _married_!" he grumped, pushing her away slightly.

"Young," she said honestly, standing with her arms folded as Pansy would have, her bottom lip extended just enough to give her semblance to a pouting three-year-old. "But still..."

Recovering quickly, she pulled her wand from her back pocket, leaned back very slightly, exposing just a thin line of her belly, then tapped her wand on her navel cutely.

"Protego Propinquum is the incantation," light blue and pink sparkles trickled from the tip of her wand. She leaned forward, pressing herself into him seductively.

"Care to test it?" she said smoothly.

"HERMIONE!" he shrieked, jumping backward. She nearly fell over as he did so, but caught herself.

Walking toward him once again, she tapped his cheek and smiled,

"Only teasing," she then turned her head behind her and shouted, "He passed."

"Ron _has_ had a bad effect on you." Harry mumbled, flopping down on the sofa.

Hermione pinched his nose playfully.

"Hmm, no." she said dreamily, waving her wand through the air, "I believe that honor belongs to your darling fiancée."

_"_You're not Imperiused...?" he began to ask, she cut him off.

"No, I'm not." she said simply. He ran his mind through hers carefully as to prevent her from picking up what he was doing.

"Merlin!" he said loudly, "It is you!"

She patted his head, then lazily flopped down next to him.

"Catching on?" she sighed, looking at him desirously. "Yes, it's me. I may read a lot, but it's not all textbooks, Harry." she admitted, blushing slightly.

"I've not seen this side of you." he said, "I kinda like it." he admitted very quietly, chuckling softly as she leaned over him.

She pulled on his cheek.

"Tell Ron and you won't need that contraceptive spell." he felt his eyes bulge involuntarily.

She cackled maniacally, ushering Pansy down the stairs.


	18. Paddy and Pansy

Patil's Pizza Parlor had to be one of the greatest places in all of Hogsmeade. Harry was quite surprised to find that not one of his fellow schoolmates was anywhere to be seen.

"'Kay, we know the Best Man and Maid of Honor." said Harry, swallowing his first bite.

"We need a 'where'." said Pansy slowly, pulling a string of cheese from her otherwise untouched slice.

"Parkinson Manor." Harry suggested awkwardly.

"No." she responded quite quickly, "Hogwarts?... Hmm.. no."

"Hmm." they said in unison, Pansy dropping the cheese into her mouth.

"Black Lake?" she asked, picking at the pizza once again, removing a tiny piece of sausage.

"I thought you said 'no' to Hogwarts?"

"To Hogwarts, yes." she admitted, plopping the sausage into her mouth and licking her finger off dramatically.

"Sure. If we can get permission, Black Lake it is." Harry agreed.

"Guests?" she asked immediately.

He kissed her softly and smiled,

"I'd prefer a private ceremony. I _really_ don't want the press in on this, but you may invite whomever you chose."

A beetle crawled through Pansy's hair. Reacting instinctively, he pulled it out and threw it across the room where it landed in the water fountain.

"Lucius Malfoy?" she asked deceptively.

"WHAT!?" Harry shouted. Thank goodness the place was near empty. Only the manager stared at him for a brief while before returning to his work.

Pansy swatted him playfully.

"I'm kidding." she kissed him, "_Absolutely_ kidding."

"Color scheme?" Harry asked. "Gold, green, and white?"

"Hmm... not green." she shook her head, "Maybe gold, white, and... silver instead of green?"

"'Kay, this is your wedding." Harry said rather quickly,"'S long as I get to marry you and nothing makes me want to lose my lunch, I'll be happy."

"Hagrid in a bikini?" she joked. Harry faked a heave and turned his head.

"Oh, please!" he said sickly, suppressing a real heave. "Don't!"

"Bridal gown?" she queried.

"You'll look stunning in anything." he complimented, taking her hand on the table. She blushed ever-so slightly. "You and Ms. Maid of Honor can have a heyday with that another time." he laughed.

She leaned forward and pulled on his nose,

"You're just trying to get out of helping."

"Maybe?" he said smoothly.

"You should be in Slytherin." she laughed, releasing his nose and drawing closer for another kiss.

* * *

Leaving the parlor as they said they would to meet up with Ron and Hermione at the Three Broomsticks, Harry gently took Pansy's hand and walked by what one might call the only alley in Hogsmeade.

A rather familiar black dog walked up to him, and sunk its teeth into his feet, pulling him into the alley.

Losing her grip on his hand, Pansy raced after Harry and into the alleyway, when the dog suddenly was no longer.

Seeing the man before her fiancé, she whipped up a pair of melting charms and sent them quickly to hover before his face.

"Harry, she's going to..." quaked the man.

"Pansy, it's okay, it's Sirius." Harry calmed her quickly, showing her his memories of the fiasco at the end of the previous school year.

"You bet it's serious." Pansy hissed, "I should kill him here and now for that." She walked closer to Sirius and glared at him, "Don't ever do that again." she growled, and allowed the orbs of fire sizzle away.

Sirius chuckled.

"I see." he said quietly. "I thought it was Hermione or perhaps Ginny..." his voice trailed off.

"No." said Pansy defiantly. "It's Mrs. Pansy Potter, thank you very much."

"Pansy... you're the Parkinson girl orphaned by her mother in the _Prophet_ this last summer?"

"Yes." she responded dryly. Her voice dropped to a near whisper, but her voice remained quite harsh, "Don't ever call me a Parkinson again. I spent my entire summer away from him sorting through my father's things."

"And the mansion?"

"Left to me by my father." she said in a small voice, "He altered his will shortly before he died. I think he knew my mom would run out on me."

"I'm sorry," said Sirius gently, offering her a hug. She took it only when motioned to do so by her fiancé. "At least you can have a family of your own now."

Pansy released Sirius from the hug and took Harry's side and hand.

"Together we'll be a family." she lowered her head onto Harry's shoulder and smiled, "But... we'll wait for the kids."

"As you should." said Sirius seriously. _(Oh, damn. That was a serious Sirius joke. DOH.) _"You've chosen well, Harry." he smiled, "You obviously love each other." he breathed deeply, "I even have to commend you for falling in love with a Slytherin."

He chuckled softly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Pansy asked defensively.

"Oh, nothing, nothing." said Sirius waving his arm dismissively. "Just that I didn't expect him to fall in love with a Slytherin after all the grief your house and Head of House has given him."

"Oh, really?" said Pansy, lifting her head from Harry's shoulder and pointing at Sirius. "Would you like to know just what I think of my Head of House?"

Sirius just stayed on the spot looking rather dumbstruck.

Pansy reached over and touched her finger to Sirius' temple.

The memory of the Sweetening Potion lesson last year took over Sirius' thoughts. It wasn't his memory, but he could see it clearly.

_"What... what did you do?"_

_"I peed in his cauldron."_

As the memory faded, Sirius broke out into hysterical laughter. When he finally calmed down, he patted his knee and spoke,

"I like her." he said, chuckling slightly still, "Hell, you can marry her and I'd not care."

"Good." said Harry seriously, "Because we're getting married. First Saturday of July."

"You're a little young to be..."

"And?" queried Pansy, her tones quite serious, "What does it matter? Neither of us has a family to go to. You already know my mother ran out on me and that my father is dead." she choked up slightly remembering his death. "And the Dursleys are about as family to Harry as a pack of ravenous wolves."

"He has me." said Sirius, a little offended.

"Well, Mr. Goddaddy, we're getting married with or without your permission." she crinkled up her nose, folded her arms, and huffed.

Sirius just gaped at her.

"Harry! Pansy!" breathed Hermione, running to them, dragging Ron behind her, "We've been looking all over for you." she then saw Sirius and smiled, "Oh, Sirius! It's good to see you!" she let go of Ron's hand and hugged him.

"Did you know that your friend over here is getting married?" Sirius asked her anxiously.

"Mhmm. I'm the Maid of Honor." she smiled widely.

"And I'm the Best Man." said Ron proudly.

Sirius looked at Harry.

"I know you'll want to be there, but until we can prove your innocence..."

"I understand, Harry. I'll be there. Where is it going to be?" he asked, letting go of Hermione. Hermione ran back to Ron and cuddled into him.

"The Black Lake, if we can get permission." said Harry, remembering their conversation in the pizza parlor.

"Black Lake?" asked Sirius seriously. _(Oops! I did it again! Oh, damn.. that was a Spears joke too... ugh!)_

"Yes."

Sirius sat down in the dirt below him, motioning them to do the same.

"Now, I must hear all about what's happened. I've not received one letter from you, Harry!"

"Sorry, Sirius." he apologized, "I'll try to be a little better about writing you. I've just been a little... distracted." he grimaced and turned to Pansy.

"Make him." Sirius said with a nod to Pansy, who grinned in response.


	19. The Unexpectedly Welcome Task

It was not at all uncommon for there to be some speech or announcement made before supper in the Great Hall, so, naturally, when Dumbledore stood and took his position in front of the staff table, the whole Hall went silent.

"The Triwizard Tournament has been with us for centuries. And, like so many other great events, it has a few of its own traditions."

Everyone in the hall stared at Dumbledore as if he were to announce that he was coming out of the closet with Severus Snape.

"With each Tournament, there is also a ball." he said softly, yet loudly, a few anxious souls took to disappointment when the closet announcement failed to come, "On Christmas Eve night, we will all gather, here, in the Great Hall, for the Yule Ball. Now, traditionally, only students fourteen and older are permitted to attend. But, seeing as the participation age for the competition itself has been raised, Mr. Alishir and I have agreed to allow all willing students to take part."

Dumbledore simply sat and started eating. The Hall was left in chattering and whisperings about what had just been said.

"Hey, Libra?" asked a rather nervous Nick from beside the blonde-haired, Gryffindor Malfoy. "Libra?"

She looked up at him distractedly,

"Would you like to come to the ball with me?"

She squeaked and threw herself onto him, kissing him first on each of his cheeks then shortly, but passionately, on his lips.

Not bothering to let him out of her hug, she smiled, a tear trailing down her cheek,

"I've been hoping you'd ask me..."

Nicki Granger looked rather disturbed. Turning to Dennis Creevy beside her, she stared at him.

"What?" he asked innocently, tearing apart his biscuit.

"What do you mean _'what'_?" she growled, placing her hands on her hips.

Revelation struck Dennis and he dropped his buscuit.

"Oh!" he suddenly became rather nervous, "Um... would you like to go to the ball with me?"

Nicki sighed in relief and threw herself on Dennis, hugging him tightly.

Fred and George looked at one another.

"Oh, damn." said Fred to George.

"Oh, damn." repeated George to Fred.

"She's taken." said Fred to George.

"Damn right, that Granger girl." said George to Fred.

Fred stared longingly at Nicki, only to turn to Hermione.

"Hey, Hermione, wanna..."

Libra wheeled around and sent her book flying into the back of Fred's still rather blue head.

"She's taken."

"He hasn't asked her yet!" said George fairly.

"It's true, he hasn't!" echoed Fred.

_"Well._" said Hermione, staring at Ron, tapping her fork on her plate.

"Er..." was about the only thing Ron managed to get out. Thinking quickly, Harry ran into Ron's thoughts and prodded him in the right direction.

"Hemione, willyagototheballwithme?" he mumbled, each word jumbling even more than the previous.  
"Hmm?" asked Hermione snidely, letting her fork fall to the table.

Ron just kissed her.

"That's good enough." she smiled, "Yes, I will go to the ball with you."

"Damn!" sighed Fred and George in unison.

The table went quiet as everyone turned to Pansy and Harry.

"Pansy, would you like to go to the ball with me?" he asked in his most romantic voice.

She sighed and looked to the side.

"I'm sorry." she said smoothly, "I'm taken."

Harry gaped and only barely managed to ask,

"Taken? By whom?"

She laughed and threw herself onto him,

"My darling fiancé." she answered, causing most of the nearby students to erupt in laughter.

Harry blushed a lurid shade of red as she planted her lips on his.


	20. The Yule Ball

Before they walked into the Hall, they were met by a beaming Ron and drop-dead gorgeous Hermione.

In a deep blue dress that could have made any man and most women fall for her, Hermione looked absolutely stunning.

Harry had never seen her look so beautiful. Feeling extremely happy for Ron, he smiled at him as an equally as beautiful Pansy walked toward him in a jaw-dropping black and silver gown.

Kissing her softly, Harry took Pansy's hand, and lead her into the Great Hall, which was decorated completely beyond recognition in outlandish ice sculptures and various frosty touches.

"Ah, Mr. Potter... _Mrs. Potter._" Said McGonagall shakily as she met them at the door, "I trust you're ready?"

"Ready?"

"It is tradition that the three champions... well, in this case, four, are the first to dance, surely I told you that?"

"No."

"Oh.. well, now you know."

McGonagall laughed nervously, almost crazily, and walked off.

"I don't know how to dance." mumbled Pansy.

"Neither do I." Harry admitted.

"Hmm... you think if we have sex on stage that'll count?" Pansy begged, her eyes reflecting the brightness of the torchlight.

"Doubt it." Harry said plainly.

"Damn."

Despite their lack of dancing ability, Harry and Pansy spent four full songs dancing with one another. Talking here and there about their plans for the wedding and various people they'd like to see attend.

"How 'bout we switch things up for a bit?" Pansy asked as Ron and Hermione stopped for a breath of air.

"Trade partners?" asked Hermione interestedly.

"For just one song, but yes."

"Fine." mumbled Ron.

"Harry, Hermione." said Pansy quickly, taking Ron back to the dance floor, "Harry, you can hug her, kiss her, but save the sex for me, got it?"

Harry nodded nervously, both _new_ pairs walked onto the dance floor. Hermione chuckled softly.

"What's funny?" he asked.

"Oh, her rules..." she giggled.

"Well, I wasn't planning to have sex with you anytime soon." he admitted.

Hermione pretended to look severely hurt. Harry didn't quite see through the act.

"Not that there is anything wrong with you or anything."

"Oh, so you _do_ want to..." she laughed.

"I'm engaged Hermione.. could we please change the subject?"

"Fine." she said, still laughing. "How about that kiss, hmm?"

Guilt once again surged through Harry. Again remembering that night in their common room, Harry stopped dancing.

"Something wrong, Harry?" Hermione asked concernedly.

Noticing that he had stopped in his thoughts, Harry quickly returned to dancing. Harry's face, however, revealed his thoughts.

"Oh." she said knowingly. "You feel guilty about it."

"Yes." Harry mumbled. "And I haven't told Pansy..."

"Oh, that's okay." she said happily. "She already knows."

"She...what?"

"I told her weeks ago."

"You..."

"Why do you think she added kissing to the list, eh?" she laughed heartily, "Or allowed me to pull that whole stunt in the common room, hmm? I didn't shout 'he passed' to no one, Harry."

"You.. sneaky... little..."

"Friends can still share kisses, right?" she asked in a voice full of child-like innocence.

"I..."

Suddenly, Harry felt Pansy enter his mind and whispered in his thoughts,

"Harry, just do it. She needs you right now. All she wants is a kiss. I can spare her that."

"I..."

Hermione leaned forward.

Reluctantly, Harry placed a quick, chaste kiss on Hermione's lips. The guilt, even with Pansy's okay, did not go away.

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Pansy asked from inside his thoughts as Hermione asked the same question aloud.

"I feel like I'm cheating on you." Harry thought to Pansy.

"You'll just have to kiss me ten more times than you kiss her and share a little something afterward. Besides, _she_ doesn't get to _sleep_ with you..."

"I just feel like I'm cheating on Pansy when I kiss you... even if it's just a friendly kiss." Harry admitted, lowering his eyes out of her gaze.

"You really love her, don't you?"

"Yes." Harry said quite solidly, "Don't you love Ron?"

"Sometimes... I'm not sure." she whispered. "How... how can you tell?"

"Would you die for him?"

"Yes... but I'd die for my friends."

Harry altered the question for a more Hermionesque tribulation.

"If you had to chose between living a happy life with Ron and completing your education, what would you chose?"

"I..." Hermione trailed off, "I... I would choose him."

"Then you love him." Harry smiled, then kissed her forehead. "Have you told him that?"

"Once." said Hermione sheepishly as they waltzed by Nicki Granger and Dennis Creevy.

"Tell him." said Harry kindly, "Tell him every time you see him. Tell him vocally, with your every touch, and with your every kiss."

Hermione blushed.

"Thanks, Harry." Hermione said wrapping her arms tighter around his neck, "Thank you."

"Anytime, Hermione. That's what friends are for."

* * *

After resting for a song, Pansy and Harry kissed lovingly. Pulling apart, Pansy pointed across the Hall at a girl sitting all alone.

"You should go ask her to dance." she said simply.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked, noting the identity of the girl across the Hall. Pansy pushed his ribs.

"Go on." she smiled. "If you get uncomfortable again, you can talk to me. You know how."

Harry nodded and walked slowly over to the girl who sat all alone.

"Would you care to dance?" he asked, offering his hand out.

Raising her eyes toward his, she stood uncertainly, but took his hand. Her eyes were a little puffy from crying.

Taking her onto the dance floor, Harry wrapped his arm around her waist and began to dance slowly with her.

"Harry?" she asked, "Are you really engaged?"

"Yes, Ginny." he responded, "I am."

"Oh." she said softly as he rocked her slightly.

"Harry?" she asked again, "Could I ask you a question?"

"I believe you just did, but yes, you may ask another." Harry smiled and Ginny chuckled nervously, as Harry watched a rather clumsy Libra Malfoy dance with Nick Granger over her shoulder.

"How did you know?" she asked softly, "How _do_ you know?"

"Ask yourself this question: If you were to have to live life without whomever you believe you love, and you find that life would no longer have meaning,could you still go on? If not, _that _is love."

Harry suddenly realized the impact of what he had said and quickly scanned Ginny's thoughts.

They were of him.

"Ginny?" he asked kindly. "I know what you're thinking. There is someone else out there who you will spend the rest of eternity with. Someone you will give your heart to, someone you will love till the end of time."

"I thought... it would be you..." she said, silent sobs breaking the occasional word.

Harry kissed her forehead kindly.

"My heart belongs to someone else, Ginny." Harry said, somewhat apologetically, "But let me promise you something."

Ginny looked up at him, desperately awaiting his next words.

"Your knight in shining armor is waiting for you."

As the song ended, Harry parted with Ginny and made his way to return to Pansy.

He was intercepted by another attractive young witch, Fleur Delacour.

"May I 'ave zees dance?" she asked him awkwardly, waving off a rather stunned Roger Davies, and reaching for his hand. Reluctantly, he took her hand and prepared himself for yet another dance. Mentally he told Pansy what was happening.

"I want to thank you for what you deed for me at ze first task." she said, placing her hands in preparation for dancing.

"It... was nothing." said Harry nervously, hoping she hadn't misinterpreted his comforting for flirting. Viktor Krum and Parvati Patil had already began to dance beside them.

"You helped me 'ave confeedance een myself." she kissed his cheek. "That eez some-sing."

"You're welcome?"

"You know ze egg?" she asked him.

"Yeah..."

"'Ave you fee-gyoored eet out yet?"

"No..." Harry admitted.

"Take your fiancée," she started, ... wait... how did she know? "and go for a leetle deep in ze water." she smiled, but remained silent for the rest of the song.

* * *

"You're a wanted man, tonight." said Pansy playfully, kissing Harry repeatedly.

"So I've noticed." Harry said lazily, "You'd think they'd've gotten the memo."

"Memo?" asked Hermione from behind him.

"Yeah... that I'm engaged."

Hermione blushed slightly, then let out a weak, 'ha!'.

"Yeah... you'd think that."


	21. The Song of the Egg

Later that evening after a long night of dancing, Harry, however exhausted, took his attention to figuring out the egg.

"Hey, Pansy wanna take a bath?" he asked innocently. _(As if he really were...)_

Pansy finished pulling her gown off and scowled at him,

"If I stink, just tell me."

"No, no." he said quickly, gently placing his arm on her bare shoulder, "With me."

"Oh?" she said softly, her eyes sparkling with their trademark glimmer.

"I got a hint about the egg..." Harry began, "I was going to go take a bath in the prefect's bathroom... I wanted to know if you wanted to come with me?"

Pansy thought about it for only a brief second, then opened her mouth to speak,

"How do you know the pass... Oh, hell what does it matter?" she kissed him, pressing her petite form against his, "Yes!"

Spinning around excitedly, she raced to find a change of clothes.

"Does this mean we're going to be getting a little intimate?" she said so happily that she sounded giddy, "We get to see each other naked!"

"Excited much?" Harry laughed.

"A little." she pulled on his nose and kissed him. She could feel her insides welling up with elation as she took his hand and Blinked with him into the Prefect's bathroom.

* * *

Turning on the water as Pansy removed the last of her clothing, Harry watched as various colors of water streamed into the pool-sized tub.

Getting in himself, Egg in his right hand, he swam the short distance toward Pansy and held her with his left.

Watching him lower his head below the water, Pansy silently listened to his thoughts as the egg began to sing its mystic song,

_"Come and seek us where our voices sound.  
We cannot sing above the ground.  
And while you're searching, ponder this:  
We've taken what you'll sorely miss.  
An hour long you'll have to look,  
And to recover what we took.  
But past an hour - the prospect's black.  
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."_

"Cannot sing above the ground?" Harry asked aloud as he surfaced. Pansy nearly immediately answered.

"Underwater."

"Hmm..." he wondered, squeezing her closer.

"The Black Lake." Pansy said softly, "There are Merpeople in it, aren't there?"

"I believe so, yes."

Harry pulled the egg from under the water and put it off on the side of the pool, allowing himself to snuggle more fully with Pansy.

"Quit teasing." Pansy groaned, gently biting his shoulder as Harry tapped her belly with his wand, pink and light blue sparkles racing from its tip.

* * *

"Who's there?" asked a particularly squeaky voice, seemingly coming from nowhere.

"Oh, no." mumbled Harry, then shared his thoughts with Pansy.

Moaning Myrtle rose from the bubbles and sputtered annoyingly, as if she were affected by them. Her nostrils flaring and her arms flung to her hips, Myrtle began to squawk,

"Who are you?" she hissed venomously at Pansy.

"His fiancée." Pansy responded plainly.

"We need to leave. Grab your things." whispered Harry into Pansy's thoughts.

"Where are you going?" screeched Myrtle as Pansy and Harry rose from the tub and raced to get their things. "Oh, Peevsie!" she squeaked as she floated in circles in the air, "Pansy and Potty is being terribly naughty!"

"Ready?" Harry mumbled as Myrtle raced through the wall and wailed her plight at the top of her lungs to anyone in the halls.

Both Blinked into their Dormitory and fell lazily onto their bed. Pansy crawled atop him and began to kiss him sensuously...

* * *

The next morning, even before bothering to open presents, (much to Ron's dismay) Harry told Ron and Hermione of the goings-on of the previous day's visit to the Prefect's bathroom, leaving out the more intimate portions. Harry still felt as if his thoughts were being scanned.

After a quick chastisement from Hermione about his disregard for the rules, she did as she normally does, head straight for the library.

A good twenty minutes later, books open clear across three tables, Hermione spoke quietly,

"What's the first part again?"

"_Come and seek us where our voices sound.  
We cannot sing above the ground._" Harry whispered.

"Obvious. The Black Lake." she mumbled, "Next?"

"_And while you're searching, ponder this:  
We've taken what you'll sorely miss."_

"Hmm... they've taken something?" said Ron stupidly.

"But what..." Hermione whined, fretting that her genius could not crack those lines, "Go onto the next part."

"_An hour long you'll have to look,_" Harry repeated from the egg's song.

"Again, obvious, though potentially problematic." sighed Hermione, slumping down in her chair.

"Potentially?" Harry and Pansy squeaked, "When's the last time you held your breath for an hour, Hermione?"

Hermione grimaced and tossed aside the enormous book in her hands.

"Did I hear you say hold your breath for an hour?" asked Neville, who magically appeared behind them.

"Neville," said Harry dully, "Yes."

"Have you considered using Gillyweed?"

"Gillyweed?"


	22. The Greatest Gifts

After a discussion with Neville about Gillyweed, Harry immediately owled a purchase request to _Exotic Herbs and the Like_, Neville's favorite wizarding herbalist's shoppe.

They all headed back up to the quartet's common room for Ron's favorite part of the Christmas holiday.

Presents.

Before sitting around the small tree in their common room, each person crept up to their dormitories and acquired their three gifts to exchange.

Sitting down carefully next to Pansy as Ron sunk down next to Hermione, Harry wrapped his arm around Pansy and smiled.

"So..." said Ron, drawing out the word for an extra long while.

"I'll give gifts out first." said Pansy excitedly, picking up a large package from her lap and handing it over to Ron.

Greedily, Ron raced through the wrapping to unveil twelve variations of Chudley Cannons fan T-shirts.

Ron looked like he could have kissed her.

"Thanks!" said Ron, his voice cracking. He leaned over to give her a quick, awkward hug.

Picking up another gift, one heavy enough that she had to lift it with both hands, she handed it to Hermione.

Carefully but anxiously, Hermione peeled off the wrapping to reveal an enormous book, _Ancient Runes, An Expedition into the Long Forgotten_, that was destined to entertain Hermione for a good ten minutes, at which point she'd have completed the volume and began preparing for memorization.

Squeaking happily, Hermione leaned over, hugged Pansy, and smiled.

Pulling the last gift from her lap, Pansy handed it to the man beside her. Harry gently took the small parcel from her hands and opened it carefully.

Inside the wrapping lay a card, as he opened it, a locket slid from its inside and into Harry's lap. Picking up the locket, he pressed its clasp to see a picture of Pansy smiling at him from the inside.

Harry kissed her lovingly and held her for a brief moment when Pansy spoke softly,

"Read it."

"To my hero, my savior,  
I give, of my wealth, only part.  
To win his eternal favor,  
I give him my whole heart."

Harry fought back a tear of joy and kissed her again.

"Okay," said Hermione happily, and picked up the first gift in her lap and handed it to Pansy.

Releasing Harry only enough to be able to handle the gift, she pressed her fingers carefully into the wrapping. The contents of the gift were smooth, slick, and a marvelous crimson.  
Gently tugging on the fabric, Pansy revealed a flowing silk gown, which she immediately pressed against her figure and smiled,

"Thanks, Hermione!" she leaned over and hugged her best female friend.

Hermione picked up another package from her lap and handed it over to Harry,

"Do you realize how hard you are to shop for?" she laughed, "I had to go to Dumbledore!"

Pansy and Ron chuckled as Harry grinned and removed the wrapping from what was very obviously a book.

The book looked new, but, as its name was _Ancient Somatic Defensive Magic_, Harry knew otherwise.

Smiling widely, he leaned over, hugged Hermione and kissed her cheek,

"Thank you, Hermione."

Releasing Harry from the hug, Hermione placed the last gift in her lap in Ron's beside her, where he eagerly tore at the wrapping.

Inside, a large box of Chocolate Frogs presented itself, along with a small, velvet box, which, upon opening, revealed a locket similar to Pansy's gift to Harry, having a smiling Hermione's eyes sparkling back at the holder.

"Thank you, 'Mione." he said softly, embracing her and kissing her thoroughly.

As Hermione pulled away from his kiss for air, Ron spoke,

"Okay," he said rather quietly, "Harry."

Ron unceremoniously dumped what Harry already knew to be a book into his lap. Harry, unwrapping it eagerly nonetheless, was pleased to find his own copy of_ Quidditch Through the Ages_ and his own enormous box of Chocolate Frogs.

"Thanks, Ron!" Harry said, giving his friend a quick, manly hug and smiling.

"Pans," Ron said, more gently dropping her gift into her lap.

Her gift turned out to be a deep violet skirt with matching blouse. Ron chuckled slightly,

"I hope you like it. I had Hermione help me get something for you." he admitted.

Pansy smiled and hugged him quickly, releasing him to take another look at the outfit.

"Now," Ron said proudly, "Hermione." he picked up a large package and placed it carefully in front of her, "I have something else for you, but I want to save it for a little later."

Hermione looked up at him interestedly, smiled, then opened her gift. On the beautiful, cherry jewelry box were the silver letters _Per Aeternius Amor_. Ron hugged her and whispered into her ear,

"For love eternal." he translated and she kissed him passionately.

Harry, noting it as his turn to share gifts, spoke,

"I got each of you a little something." he said, "Each of you got your own special something, but each of you also got..."

He waved his hand in front of the tree and three, brand-new broomsticks appeared, each rested neatly atop a Broom Servicing Kit.

"Sapphire Cirrus." breathed Ron, pulling the nearest to him, resting it halfway in his lap.

"Now." said Harry nonchalantly, "Ron." he pushed a heavy box over toward him. Ron, as was characteristic, opened it quickly.

"No... way." said Ron breathlessly, Hermione giggled some at the look on his face, "My own set of Quidditch balls?" Ron opened the box and squealed like a little girl, then leapt over and hugged Harry.

Pansy pushed on Ron's forehead in annoyance.

"Hey, hands off the fiancé." she said coolly, then laughed herself into tears.

"Hermione," said Harry, handing another package to her, she peeled back the wrapping and grinned widely as the words, _Advanced Charmwork Expanded _became visible. "Now, open it."

As she did so, a simple golden chain necklace slid from the inside cover.

"It's beautiful!" she exclaimed, then hugged him and kissed his cheek. "Thank you."

As Hermione returned to Ron's arms, Harry placed the last gift in front of his fiancée, who, removing her arm from around him, removed the wrapping.

On the top of a magnificent, Alder Jewelry box, emblazoned in shining gold letters were the words, _Iubirea Nu Moare_.

As Ron did, Harry leaned over and translated,

"Love never dies." he said, pulling from his pocket, a platinum chain necklace with a pink sapphire surrounded by small diamonds.

Pansy turned to Harry, kissed him lingeringly, and melted into him.

_(A/N: This necklace can be seen using the link under "Give Yourself Away" on my profile page.)  
_

* * *

Later that night in the common room, Hermione and Ron sat alone in the love seat. (Pansy and Harry were in their dorm sleeping as it was very late.)

Ron kissed Hermione's forehead and whispered,

"Now," he said softly, "for your last present."

Reaching into his pocket, he removed a small velvet box and opened it. Hermione's eyes widened and sparkled.

"It's a promise ring," he explained, removing it and slipping it onto her ring finger carefully, "Signifying my promise to you that, one day, I will ask you to marry me." he hugged her tightly, "And," he continued, "that you're the only one for me." he smiled and looked into her eyes, "I love you, Hermione."

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she smiled.

"Oh, Merlin!" she breathed, "I love you!"

And with that she kissed him, every last piece of affection pouring into her kiss as she forgot her need to breathe and pushed him flat onto his back.


	23. The Second Task

It was the evening of February the 23rd, and, a late Wednesday though it was, Harry could not sleep... and unless Pansy returned soon, he wouldn't.

Pansy had been called to talk to McGonagall during dinner and had yet to come back. And, to top it all off, she hadn't made any mental contact with him either, something that was making him increasingly worried.

He fought the terrible thoughts in his mind that Pansy could potentially have been taken as she had been last year, kidnapped and tortured...

Harry shuddered involuntarily.

Giving up on the thought of sleep, he walked down the stairs of his dormitory and down into the Quartet Common Room.

Hermione sat, cross-legged, nose-deep in a book on the love seat. Her eyes scanned the page hungrily as she continued to absorb all she could.

Quietly, Harry sat beside her.

This, however, did not go at all unnoticed by Hermione, who neatly tucked in her bookmark and placed her book off to the side.

"You're waiting for Pansy, too?" she asked, a sense of vulnerability in her voice.

"Yes," Harry sighed, closing his eyes. "I can't sleep without her."

Hermione took Harry into his arms and hugged him.

"She'll be okay, she's with McGonagall." she whispered reassuringly.

"I know." mumbled Harry, still not sure of her safety.

Hermione kissed his head and rocked him gently, and, before he knew it, he had fallen asleep.

* * *

"Last night," boomed Dumbledore's voice from next to the water as the champions lined up beside him, "Something was stolen from each of our champions. A treasure of sorts. They have exactly one hour from the sound of the..."

BOOM. The cannon fired.

Harry quickly shoved the Gillyweed down his throat and dived in. The water was icy cold, but, he had to finish this task. And immediately afterward, he would focus the entirety of his efforts on finding Pansy.

Harry felt a strange stinging on either side of his neck. Wincing as he touched the slits that now opened and closed there, Harry swam forward and explored the depths of the Black Lake.

It was then that he smiled, realizing that in a few short months, he and Pansy would be married here. (He had recently had a chat with Dumbledore on the subject. Dumbledore hadn't been too keen on Harry's early marriage, but accepted it nonetheless.)

Scanning everything in sight for some sign of his 'treasure', Harry's eyes shot open.

It was Pansy.

Pansy and three other bodies beside hers, each floating in the water, held down by some strange kelp. They were all still... like frozen in time.

Swimming his fastest toward Pansy, he heard a very gargled scream... it eerily belonged to a familiar voice.

It was Fleur's.

Above the water, he could hear the muffled announcement,

"One of the champions has been forced to retire and will take no further part in this challenge."

Harry's heart sank. He knew whomever Fleur's treasure had been would be stuck down here...

Waving his wand at the kelp, Harry broke the bond holding Pansy to the lake floor. She stayed there unmoving, needing a little push...

A shark... Harry thought it was a shark... raced past him and grabbed the oldest-looking of the four people, a woman possibly in her mid-forties.

It was then Harry saw the red swim trunks of Viktor Krum as his massive jaws snapped the restraint and raced her to the surface.

Harry took Pansy's arm and pulled her closer, swimming sideways toward the small form of a girl that looked unmistakably like Fleur, when Cedric Diggory swam by him and freed Cho, using a quick spell to shoot the both of them to the surface.

Harry had a sinking feeling, his heroic instincts had lost him this task already, so he would free Fleur's treasure.

Waving his wand again, this time at the little girl's restraints, Harry prepared to grab her arm as three threatening Merpeople raised their tridents to his throat.

"Only one!" they said in unison.

"Bugger off!" he growled, casting his Air-Suppression shield to force them away.

That worked. But, Harry soon realized, it was not a good idea to cast Air-Suppression in a low-air environment. Quickly releasing the air in the shield, Harry gasped for air and, little girl and fiancée in hand, began to swam to the surface.

Just a few feet before breaking surface, Harry felt himself being quickly dragged down as the tentacles of several dozen Grindylow wrapped themselves around his legs.

Fighting them away as quickly as he could, Harry pushed Pansy's body upward with the little girl's and turned to face his opposition.

Pansy broke the surface first, gasping for air and breathing sporadically, she instantly realized where she was. Seeing the small form of Fleur's little sister beside her emerge, Pansy motioned her to the shore and slipped it into the girl's mind that Pansy would be going, once again, under the water.

The judges all cheering, the sound rung marking the end of the task. Each of the treasures had been brought to the surface and the scoring could begin...

Except that Harry had yet to surface.

Biting her nails uncharacteristically, Hermione couldn't help but fret as she pushed herself more into Ron's burly form.

Realizing that he would now be able to communicate with Pansy, he quickly sent her a thought of panic as he raced to free himself of as many Grindylows as he could... but they were too fast.

Pansy, sensing his predicament, plunged back into the water, causing several judges to raise from their seats. She was Harry's treasure, for both the task and for life, and he was hers...

Finally freeing himself of the last of the Grindylow, Harry tried with the last of his strength to swim upward, but found himself unable to do so. He was fast running out of air, the Gillyweed gills were quickly losing their power, and it would only be a short while before he would drown.

Seeing her lover floating limp in the water, she grabbed his arm and fought to surface.

As their heads met the sun once again, both, choking a little on the water they swallowed, breathed in as large of gulps of air as their lungs would allow.

Waving her free hand awkwardly, Pansy and Harry's bodies shot out of the water and landed, quite mysteriously, on the surface of the water.

Walking on its surface, Harry beside her, she proudly walked to the shore.

Both of them collapsed.

The audience broke into an earsplitting applause.

Hermione raced to grab towels and covered them both as quickly as she could. Their bodies, however conscious, were quite weak.

Glancing upward at the judge's stands Harry sighed.

"I came in last place, Pansy."

"Next to last!" Hermione squeaked, kissing his forehead. "Fleur never managed to get past the Grindylows!"

"I almost didn't either." said Harry huskily.

Dumbledore stood and turned to face the audience,

"The winner is... Viktor Krum, whose partial use of an Animagical form allowed him quick recovery of his mother. However, seeing as Mr. Potter would have finished first were it not for his determination to save not only Ms. Parkinson...""

Pansy hissed, Harry reminded her that their wedding was still not formal and as such he was required to call her by her legal name in the presence of a large audience.

"...but the others as well, we have agreed to award him second place, for outstanding moral fibre."

"Second place!" breathed Hermione merrily, patting him on his back and helping both him and Pansy to their feet.

* * *

As happened after the first task, Gryffindor wanted to cheer him on and celebrate. Harry, not feeling at all up to doing anything remotely active, Blinked with Hermione, Pansy, and Ron to their common room before collapsing beside Pansy on the sofa.

Realizing she was again with him, Harry threw his arms around Pansy and cried,

"I thought I'd lost you!" he said, "I couldn't sleep."

Pansy, rolling her eyes and grinning, patted him lovingly on his back as Ron picked up the _Prophet_ and read the title to the cover story aloud,

"HARRY POTTER AND THE TWO-WOMEN JUGGLING ACT"


	24. Along Came A Beetle

"HARRY POTTER AND THE TWO-WOMEN JUGGLING ACT

Harry Potter, age twelve, has recently taken to two particularly attractive young ladies, as mentioned in an article previous, Harry Potter's affections for Ms. Hermione Granger are impossibly intense, despite the fact that he is rumored to be engaged, rather youngly, to a Ms. Pansy Parkinson. After spending a night of forbidden romance with his partner, Ms. Granger, Harry met her early the next day for a second helping. Dissuaded by her public surroundings, Ms. Granger promptly refused, asking him only to "remember what they had" the night before.

Harry then brought up the Imperius Curse, sending young Ms. Granger into tears, repeatedly she whined that she did not want to know, suggesting that she may have used the Curse, which, mind you, is illegal, to seduce him on the night in question.  
No word yet on how Ms. Parkinson is taking the news..."

"What a load of crap." hissed Pansy, squeezing Harry closer.

"There's more," said Ron, continuing to read,

"Suspicions of young Potter's engagement to Ms. Parkinson were confirmed after an interview with a Ms. Sarah Aragon, a first year Slytherin who overheard them talking in Hogsmeade's Pizza Parlor,  
"They were talking in hushed voices," says Ms. Aragon, "Talking about color schemes, wedding guests, and location." Ms. Aragon was then quite excited to reveal that their agreed-upon private ceremony would take place at the Black Lake on Hogwarts' grounds. Time and date for the ceremony have yet to be unveiled."

"That bitch!" hissed Pansy, standing, temporarily forgetting her body's fatigue. "Ooooh.. I..." she collapsed back onto the sofa in a fit a wooziness. "I'll deal will her later..." she whined and softly slipped into the peace of slumber.

* * *

"We're missing something." grumped Pansy, staring into Harry's eyes. "I know Sarah... we saw her get sorted. She wasn't there! Besides, she's a first year! She wouldn't be there anyways!"

"And Hermione and I were completely alone when we had the talk about..." whined Harry.

"Yes... I know." breathed Pansy. "There has to be something... something we're missing."

Ron and Hermione simply stayed quiet as they listened to Pansy and Harry skim through all the possibilities regarding how their secrets had been revealed.

"Harry?" asked Hermione, her voice was quiet, but heard.

"Yes?" Harry responded, a little agitated. Hermione left Ron's side and pulled Harry's hand toward her temple.

Harry knew what she wanted him to do. Instantly dipping into her mind, her thoughts melded into his like a warm summer's breeze. Carefully, he scanned for their meeting in the library.

_"Kiss me." she said suddenly._

_He hesitated, but friendly kissed her on her forehead._

_"On my lips." she demanded._

_"No." he said flatly._

_"You were being controlled." she said forcefully._

_"I..."_

_"Just accept it. I will." she leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, by the way."_

_"Hmm?"_

_He was just about to ask what she had meant when he remembered complimenting her delicious kisses..._

_"Oh... still friends then?" he asked apprehensively._

_"Definitely." she smiled, "But definitely just friends." she hugged him. "Even if we did share a very special kiss."_

And then... Harry noticed it...

Pulling out of her mind quickly, but carefully, Harry opened his eyes and gently kissed Hermione on the cheek.

"Merlin," he said repeating the kiss on her other cheek and smiling, "You're brilliant."

"Huh?" Pansy, Hermione, and Ron all said in unison. Harry turned to Pansy,

"There was a beetle in the Parlor, remember? I pulled it out of your hair and it landed in the water fountain. I was aiming for the hot oil..." Harry explained, "And that day, in the library, there was a beetle in Hermione's hair, too."

Hermione gasped and put her hand to her mouth.

"She's an Animagus!" she breathed. "That explains why we never saw her! She was bugging the room... Wizard-style."

Ron just looked at Hermione, his face was so full of confusion that Hermione had to prevent herself from exploding with laughter. To stifle herself, she kissed him.

"I'll bet she's not registered..." said Harry through gritted teeth.

Pansy and Hermione huffed.

"Next time, Harry," Pansy growled, placing her fingers animatedly on Harry's chest, "Squish that bitch."

She motioned squishing a bug on him.

Harry turned back to look at Hermione,

"You know how weird it is to be in someone's mind like that?" he asked her rather randomly.

"What, you don't like being in my mind?" she asked defensively.

Harry turned and hugged her, passively dipping his thoughts into her mind.

"Oooh..." she squeaked. "I..." she sighed slightly and her knees gave out. Harry held her up in his hands and allowed her mind to clear once again.

"See what I mean?" he queried, allowing her to regain her strength before he released her.

"That could take some getting used to-" Hermione gasped. "I felt all of your emotions-everything you felt." She breathed in deeply. "It's the greatest feeling in the world."

Harry turned to replace his arm around Pansy and kissed her.

"The memory I shared with you is the among happiest I've ever felt," Harry said quietly as Ron hugged Hermione and kissed her cheek, "But, I'd wager that not all are quiet so pleasing."

* * *

That night, after a long day of classes, Harry lay beside Pansy, his arm around her silky, bare stomach.

"So..." asked Pansy, pulling Harry on top of her, "What memory did you show her, exactly?"

"Our first kiss," he responded simply, kissing her neck.

Pansy wrapped her arms around the back of his head and smiled,

"You know..." she began, her voice as sultry as ever, "We've never been in each other's mind while we..."

"True..." said Harry kissing her passionately on her lips to cut her off. Quickly and softly, they entered one another's minds.


	25. The Dream

"Come on Pans, this is..." Harry couldn't even finish his words before another flame whip came wheeling in his direction. Thinking quickly, he blinked away, perhaps 20 feet to his left.

Harry tossed his arms up, causing a wave of icy air to race toward Pansy as his spell encased her in a field of air.

She Blinked.

"Damn." Harry swore under his breath. They were now thirty minutes into a rather draining duel.

Sensing her proximity, Harry Blinked.

"Son of a..." she hissed as she let spell vanish, floating out into the open field. Ron and Hermione sat, cuddled together watching the battle.

Pansy felt Harry Blink behind her, spinning around quickly, she shot off a stunning jinx.

Harry, using her open mind to his advantage, knew this was coming the second he Blinked. Using a Spell-Reflection Charm, he sent her own spell flying back at her, where it hit her in the chest.

Hermione and Ron cheered in the background as Harry walked over to Pansy and kissed her motionless form.

"Oh, un-stun me, damn it!" she screamed into his thoughts. Obediently, Harry waved his arm and she raced to add her own passion to the kiss.

"I win." said Harry smugly. "You really need to close your mind... during the duels at least." he grinned, But keep it open for..." he added in a near whisper.

Pansy poked his belly playfully,

"Mhmm."

* * *

_"The boy, Wormtail." said a high, chilling voice._

_"My lord, what if we... if we were to do it without the boy?" said Wormtail._

_"No! The boy is everything! It must be done!" responded the first voice._

_In his peripheral vision, a long, thick snake whisked by and entered into the room._

_"There isss a man..." Nagini hissed, her snake tongue whipping around violently as she spoke._

_Frank couldn't hear the rest of the conversation. He didn't need to. Seeing the scraggly and portly man that had been talking only the moment before walk out to him, Frank really wished he had run._

_And if it weren't for the cursed pain in his leg, he would have._

_"Stand aside, Wormtail, so I can give our guest... a proper greeting!" the voice from the chair hissed as it turned dramatically around, "Avada Kedavara!"_

Harry sat bolt upright, a concerned Pansy already lay beside him, her hands on his shoulders where they had been shaking him awake,

"Harry! Harry!" she panted, "Harry, what's wrong?" Her voice was full of panic and concern. Harry simply turned to meet her eyes and shared the dream with her.

As the memory concluded, Pansy screamed.

* * *

"You've got to go to Dumbledore." urged Hermione after finally calming the two enough to speak to them. "He _needs _to know."

"It's just a dream." said Harry dismissively, "A nightmare..."

Hermione shook Harry roughly,

"Harry!" she screeched, "Listen to me!" Harry turned to meet her eyes, "You don't just dream about stuff like this."

* * *

After losing a predeterminately lost duel of reason against Hermione, Pansy and Harry set out for Dumbledore's office under Harry's invisibility cloak.

They watched as two men raced by them and up the stairs into Dumbledore's office. Following at a more reasonable pace, they halted at the top of the steps where the door slammed in front of them.


	26. In The Pensieve

"I will not been seen as weak!" grumped a familiar voice, "It's times like these that people look to their leaders for strength!"

"A man has been killed, Fudge!"

"It might interest you," growled a voice, "that this conversation is no longer private."

The door swung open and Alastor Moody hobbled toward them, blocking their vision into the room, as if he could see them under the cloak. His electric blue eye swung wildly as he pulled them in, Harry pulling off and hiding the invisibility cloak as discretely as he could, to prevent drawing any further attention to himself or to Pansy.

"Ah, Mr. Potter." said a rather annoyed Centros Alishir.

"I'm sorry, sir." Harry directed at Dumbledore.

"No need to apologize, Harry. We've just finished. If you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to, I'll be back shortly."

Dumbledore motioned Alishir, Fudge, and Moody to leave. Before he closed the door, he turned around,

"Don't be afraid to indulge yourself in a Licorice Snap in my absence. But I should warn you, they're a wee bit sharp."

He closed the door. Harry turned to Pansy.

"Don't." she said, seemingly randomly. Harry knew what she was talking about, "They bite."

She then turned her gaze to a small stone basin across the room. Following her eyes, Harry observed the ancient runes on its exterior, and was instantly transfixed by the glowing essence swimming inside.

In a trance-like state, both stepped gradually toward the basin and stared,

"Have any clue what it is?" Harry asked.

"No..." Pansy's voice was quite detached. Both leaned in closer and felt themselves pulled inside...

"_Igor Karkaroff, you have been brought from Azkaban at your own request to provide evidence to this council. Should your testimony prove consequential, we may be willing to order your eminent release. Until such time you will remain in the eyes of the Ministry convicted Death Eater. Do you accept these terms?"_

_An unfamiliar man spoke to the man in the cage, the man Harry and Pansy both recognized as the Durmstrang headmaster._

_"Yes, sir." answered the man. He looked extremely panicked. His eyes were wide with a mix of shock and fear._

_"And what do you have to give us?" queried the first man._

_"I have.. names, sir."_

_"Names?"_

_"There was a ... a Rosier."_

_"Rosier is dead." responded the important-looking man._

_"Yeah." chuckled a much less war-beaten Mad-Eye Moody, "And he took a piece of me with him." he pointed to the false eye spinning in his head and tapped Dumbledore's shoulder as he did so._

_"There was... Rookwood." cried Karkaroff, his eyes darting hopefully at the Wizenagmot spread across the room._

_"Algernon Rookwood... of the Department of Mysteries?" replied the man doing the inquiry._

_"Yes. Rookwood... he was a spy. He passed secrets from inside the Ministry itself." Karkaroff's smiled crooked a little more to reflect the madness within. Azkaban had certainly done things to him..._

_"Very well, the Council will deliberate..."_

_"What about Snape..." interrupted Karkaroff, "Severus Snape... and Centros Alishir!"_

_Just then, Dumbledore, who sat beside Harry and Pansy, and had, until now, gone unnoticed by both, stood and shouted,_

_"Both were indeed Death Eaters, but before Lord Voldemorts downfall turned spy for us at great personal risk. Today, they're no more Death Eaters than I am."_

_Dumbledore slumped back into his chair lazily._

_"It's a lie! Both remain faithful to the Dark Lord..." croaked Karkaroff, his voice now even more full of panic._

_"Silence!" shouted the man, banging his gavel against his desk, "Unless the prisoner has another name of consequence, this session is concluded."_

_Karkaroff stood and shifted in his cage, flailing about in a desperate bid for attention._

_"No.. I have more... one more... I know for fact this person took part in the capture, and, by means of the Cruciatus Curse, torture of the Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom."_

_A man in the back stood, bearing a striking resemblance to the inquisitor, he made to leave._

_"The name, give us the name!" grumped the inquisitor._

_"Barty Crouch..." shouted Karkaroff. This send the eyes of the entirety of the Wizenagamot straight to the inquisitor, gasping and shouting in disbelief._

_"Junior." he concluded._

_The man at the door raced his hand to the handle and pulled, only to be hit by a quick-witted Alastor Moody's Stunning Jinx._

_Beside Harry, Dumbledore stood and took a hand each from Pansy and Harry. Slowly and gradually, they made their return to the real world._

"Curiosity is not a sin, but you would do well to exercise caution." said Dumbledore, quite seriously.

"Professor Dumbledore..." began Harry, Pansy cut him off.

"What is that?" she asked, a little leery of what she had just seen in it.

"It's called a Pensieve." he said simply.

"A Pensieve?" she repeated.

"It allows me to deposit memories from the past when, like so many, I find myself a wee bit stretched." he explained.

"I don't understand... what use is that?" she prodded, crooking an eyebrow and folding her arms questioningly.

"It allows me to revisit memories that are cloudy or forgotten. You see, I've searched and searched for something, something that would explain why all these terrible things are happening... and each time I get close... it slips away." he shook his head in frustration, "It's maddening."

"Sir... in the Pensieve... we saw... Karkaroff... he said that Mr. Alishir... Professor Snape... they..." Harry could barely speak. What he had seen in the memory had disturbed him quite greatly.

"They were freed of charges against them. Both were indeed Death Eaters, but turned spy for us at great personal risk."

"How can you trust them, sir?" Harry asked, looking deep into Dumbledore's blue eyes.

"I have my reasons." he mumbled.

"And Mr. Crouch's son?" queried Pansy, unfolding her arms to take Harry's hand.

"Guilty." Dumbledore sighed, "Sentenced to life in Azkaban."

"Sir... I... I've had this dream... sir. And Hermione said that... it wasn't normal. She forced me to come up here..."

"It's not normal, sir." interrupted Pansy, widening her eyes to share the memory with Dumbledore.

Shaking herself free as Dumbledore finished seeing the memory, he simply walked back to the Pensieve and swirled his wand at its contents.

"You should get some sleep, Harry. You have a long day ahead."

"But sir.. the dream."

"Just a dream, Harry." Dumbledore reassured him. "Just a dream."


	27. The Third Task

The Quidditch pitch was entirely unrecognizable. The majority of the field had been overgrown with varying shrubs, all of towering heights.

Harry had the eerie feeling that there was far more than a labyrinth of green awaited him for the final part of the Triwizard Tournament.

Turning around, he promptly hugged Hermione.

"Good luck." she whispered, releasing him and returning her hand to Ron's.

Pansy threw herself around Harry and kissed him repeatedly.

"Just remember," she smiled... oh, dear... her mischievous smile, "that win or lose, I'm still marrying you."

She tugged on his nose and kissed him again.

"And if I die?" Harry asked in a hushed voice.

She sighed,

"Well, the sex wouldn't be as good..."

Hermione gagged, Ron himself fought back a little bile. Both turned away and headed for the stands.

"You won't be dying, will you?" Pansy asked, she sounded worried.

"I'll try my hardest." Harry responded simply.

"To stay _alive_, I hope." she poked him playfully.

"Of course."

Bending down slightly, he poured his soul into a mind-numbing, breath-taking kiss.

Smiling weakly at him before pulling out of the embrace, Pansy pointed to her temple and whispered,

"Keep in touch."

* * *

"In the maze you'll find no dragons or creatures of the deep." said Dumbledore to the champions as they lined-up, ready to go, each with their wands in hand. "Instead you'll find something more terrifying. You see.. people _change_ in the maze."

The voice of Centros Alishir boomed over the audience.

"Tied for first place, Mr. Viktor Krum..." the Durmstrang portion of the audience erupted into cheering, "and Mr. Potter," the Gryffindors and Pansy added their own cheers for Harry, "who will enter the maze first." he cleared his throat, "In second place, Mr. Cedric Diggory, and in last place Ms. Fleur Delacour." each, in turn, was awarded their own cheering.

Stepping down from the platform, Centros Alishir waved at Harry and Krum, and led each of them to their entrances.

"At the sound of the cannon..."

Boom. Another premature cannon-fire. Merlin, is Filch a screw-up or what?

Harry was pushed forward slightly by Moody. Harry, turning around, could have sworn he saw him pointing to the left...

Then the bushes closed on him.

"Pansy," he broad-casted, "I'm in."

"Just keep calm." she whispered into his thoughts.

Stepping forward, he came to the first of his many turns. Going with Moody's suggestion, he turned left.

Winding down what seemed like miles and miles of the bushy labyrinth, Harry's heart began to pound wildly.

Harry heard a scream.

It was Fleur's.

She was a damsel-in-distress if he'd ever seen one. Good God, what knot did she get herself into this time?

Letting his conscience and annoyingly clear concern for the life of this frenchwoman get to him, he wheeled around and raced to the place where her voice had sounded.

"Fleur?" Harry called.

Harry saw Fleur, unconscious and, as was normally the case when one was in such a state, entirely immobile.

But the man whose voice sounded above hers as Harry rose his eyes was completely conscious...

And his eyes where unmistakably glazed.

From behind him, he heard the footsteps of Viktor Krum.

Throwing himself into Diggory, Krum knocked the Imperiused nut flat on his back and beat his face repeatedly.

It would seem Krum had a few feelings for Ms. Frenchwoman.

"Krum, don't he's bewitched." Harry pulled back on Krum's arms and nearly received a mouthful of knuckles himself.


	28. In The Maze

"Harry," whispered Pansy into his thoughts, "You're wasting time. Just stun him and get going."

Heeding her warning, Harry shot a wandless Stunning Jinx at Cedric and blasted Krum a good forty-feet back.

Pulling Fleur's body up from the ground, he Blinked out of the maze and carefully placed her in front of Dumbledore.

The audience responded by shrieking and shouting. The members of the Beauxbatons portion of the audience were torn between wanting to curse him into oblivion and commending him for having the heart to bring her to safety.

Before too many questions were asked about how he effectively Apparated (which, mind, this was not what he had done. He knew, but few others did...), Harry Blinked back to where he had been.  
_  
A shame I can't just Blink to the cup._ He thought in annoyance.

Blasting a hole through the bushes in front of him, Harry trudged through the maze without remorse, blasting everything out of his way using the ancient magic taught to him in eight days of hard study... and several weekend nights dueling his heart out with his fiancée.

Blasting through yet another wall of bushes, Harry stepped right in front of an enormous creature.

With the head of a woman and body of a lion, the creature roared its disapproval as Harry sent a Stunning Jinx flying toward it.

The sphynx, however, was not immobilized in the least. Unperturbed by the attack, the sphynx simply spoke in a normal, smooth voice.

"Should you wish to pass, answer me this: What walks on four legs in the morning, on two at noon, and on three in the evening?"

Harry thought. An immense challenge for him, it would seem.

It always was.

But it was even worse now that he actually_ needed_ to.

Ideas raced through Harry's head. Nothing quite seemed to fit.

"Harry," said Pansy's voice from inside his head. She was quiet, but, her voice being the only form of comfort from his distress, he listened intently, "A man."

Harry repeated her words aloud,

"A man. He walks on all fours as an infant, two at the prime of life, and, in his later years, requires the use of a cane, a third leg, in old age."

The sphynx looked rather annoyed that he had answered _correctly _so earlybut let him pass.

"Thanks, Pans." Harry thought to her.

"Nothing love. You just owe me some more..."

"When I get out of here, we'll have a_ huge _celebration. Creased bedsheets style." Harry answered atop her voice, he smiled widely as he thought of his future... not just with her intimately, but of waking up each morning to her smile, of being able to care for her, love her, raise children_... their_ children with her, of growing old with her, and of loving her with every fibre of his being till the day when they would both pass beyond the veil into the great abyss.

And if there was a heaven, Harry would spend the rest of eternity with her there as well.

Harry smiled, even when he should be feeling the most panic of his life, he felt at peace. Calm, collected, completely and totally swallowed in the warmth of everlasting love.

Who was he kidding? Of course there is a heaven.

With her.

In her arms.

With her smile.

Her sweet kisses.

Harry continued down each of the winding paths within the maze, occasionally blasting through to cut in a little closer to what he hoped was where the Triwizard Cup had been placed.

All the happiness he had just felt... that had been burning within him... was gone.

In its place was a cold, empty feeling.

Harry was not at all unfamiliar with this, he knew what to do.

Thinking of their latest night of intimacy, Harry focused his thoughts on Pansy once more, whipped out his wand, and shouted,

_"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"  
_  
The full-fledged form of his stag Patronus erupted from the tip of his wand, charging itself toward the Dementor.

Behind him, Harry heard the pants of Viktor Krum. He was catching up.

Racing behind the Dementor as his Patronus cast the vile thing away, Harry saw the glimmer of the cup in the distance.

Using every last bit of strength he had to charge in its direction, he ran.

And ran.

And ran. Krum close behind him, Harry spun around and tried throwing him back as he had done previously.

But his Jinx was blocked by a shield charm.

Just his luck.

The cup was just within reach. Reaching for it with his hand, he caught the eyes of Viktor Krum staring back at him as he, too, grabbed it, the far handle gradually becoming more wholly wrapped in his grasp.

Harry mentally prepared himself for a fight, staring at the wall of bushes behind Krum, he fought mentally, ready to hex Krum into oblivion to win Hogwarts the cup.

With an unfamiliar jerk around the navel, Harry found the bushes slip away.

Feeling the ground beneath him shift.. change... Harry glanced around at his surroundings.

They were no longer in the maze.

Krum stared at Harry quizzically.

Harry made certain to respond with a look of bewilderment, as was fitting.

Tearing his eyes from Krum, Harry saw the rows of graves surrounding them, the darkness of the cemetery only adding to the eerie effect of the most strange occurrence...

As if far in the distance, Harry heard Pansy speak worriedly into his mind,

"Harry, you feel... away."


	29. The Portkey

"Where are we?" asked Krum as the Cup rolled away from their hands as they crashed onto their backs.

"I don't know." whined Harry, bringing himself once again to his feet.

"Harry, the cup was a Portkey." Pansy spoke to his mind. Were Harry a Muggle, he'd have been far more concerned about the voices in his head... "A device used to transport wizards long distances."

Krum rose from the ground and growled at Harry,

"What did you do, why are we here?"

Harry wanted to scream at him for making such an implication. Brushing himself off he responded in the most neutral voice he could muster,**  
**  
"I didn't do anything," Harry said, then continued in undertone, "what is this place...?"

Harry again looked at his surroundings. Row upon row of gravestones lined the field in which they stood. Two of the largest right in front of them.

'TOM RIDDLE' and 'MARY RIDDLE'.

Harry was instantly unnerved by seeing the names, Pansy sensing his panic, shouted into his mind, as distant as she was, he held onto her voice.

"Harry," she screeched, "Get out of there!" The second her final word hit his thoughts, Harry's body flew from where it stood, landing with his back against the grave he had just been observing.

Harry felt as though a white hot iron was being pressed firmly against his forehead. His eyes temporarily rendered useless by the pain, Harry screamed.

And, in his thoughts, so did Pansy.

"Harry, I'm sorry, I..." her voice was shaky. Harry felt her leave.

Part of him had gone.

* * *

Pansy covered her mouth as the scream erupted from within her. The pain was intense, as was the agony of leaving her fiancé without her comfort. He was in graver danger than the maze had ever been intended to inflict.

If she didn't do something quickly, he would die.

"I've got to tell Dumbledore!" she shot up from her seat and began to scoot down the rows to the aisle.

"Dumbledore?" laughed Hermione, somewhat mockingly, but entirely worried, "You're actually going to Dumbledore? I should feel proud of you." she smiled.

"I blame you thoroughly." grumped Pansy lightheartedly, exiting to the aisle. "Rub off on me much more, hon, and we might as well be lesbian lovers."

Her words got a few stares from the audience. Hermione's jaw dropped, making her look incredibly stupid despite the truth of the matter. (The truth being about Harry's predicament, of course.)

Ron even squeaked involuntarily before tightening his grip on Hermione's waist.

Charging down the rows and up to the Judge's stands, Pansy raced up to Dumbledore.

Entirely out of breath, she spoke at a million kilometres per second,

"Dumbledore, sir." she panted, "Harry... and ... Krum... the cup... was a... Portkey... not in maze... in danger..."

Dumbledore and Madam Maxime both turned to face the panicking beauty.

"Vat vas zat?" scoffed Karkaroff.

Pansy breathed deeply and tried again,

"Dumbledore, sir, Harry and Krum, they grabbed the cup at the same time. The cup was a Portkey. They're not in the maze anymore, sir. They're both in danger."

"Might I ask 'ow you know zees?" asked Madam Maxime skeptically.

"Harry and I have a mental connection." she explained, "Long story short, we're rarely out of contact with one another." Pansy begged, "Please, sir. They're in danger... Harry's in danger!"

"What did you see?" he asked calmly.

"A graveyard..." her voice trailed off.

"Before... he.. we saw two gravestones before he was attacked..." Hermione amended, filing in beind Pansy, after quickly scanning her.

"Gravestones?" Dumbledore sounded curiously interested.

"Yes, gravestones." Pansy confirmed.

"Do you know where this graveyard is?" Dumbledore asked, getting to his feet.

"No, sir. I had to leave his mind." her voice quavered, "The pain..." she wiped her forehead and realized then that she had bled where the pain ripped through her.

"You've shared a memory with me before," said Dumbledore simply, "Let me see."

Pansy widened her eyes in the attempt to show him the memory. She tried repeatedly to force it into his mind...

But it wouldn't go through.

"I can't." Pansy said huffily.

"Why not?" queried Dumbledore.

"Because she eez lying." said Madame Maxime, returning her attention to the maze.

Centros Alishir walked past behind them and went up into the stands for a better view.

"I..." Pansy's voice strayed some as she watched Centros Alishir leave her vision, "I think I'm being blocked."

"Can you go into Harry's mind?" asked Dumbledore awkwardly, "To warn him?"

"I... can't go into his mind... it burns..." she shuddered, her knees nearly giving out beneath her. "...it burns..."

* * *

Harry stood, or rather, floated against the gravestone and screamed his mind into oblivion as the pain wretched itself deeper and deeper into his forehead, Harry was sure he was going to explode when the form of Peter Pettigrew came into the little light that was available.

"Kill the spare!" said a high voice. Wormtail raised his wand toward Krum and shouted,

"_AVADA KEDAVRA_!"


	30. Of Gashes, Tears, and Blood

Harry fought to keep what little composure he had. His temper was starting to build. He could not move physically, nor could he Blink away magically. Whatever force bound him to the grave held him quite thoroughly.

Turning slowly in the dim light, Wormtail whipped his wand quickly at a cauldron conveniently placed in the graveyard. Underneath the cauldron, fire streamed out and licked the sides.

Moving just a degree more, Harry could make out the fragile appendages of what seemed to be a grotesque cross between an old man and an infant Muggle. Covered nearly to completion in coal black robes, the creature inside whispered something that, to Harry, was inaudible.

"Yes, my lord." said Wormtail in a squeaky voice, "It is ready, Master."

_"Now_." hissed the creature from within the robes. Dumping it into the cauldron, Wormtail watched fearfully as the cauldron spewed streaks of white and blue.

_Please, let it drown._ Thought Harry anxiously. _Please, let it drown._

"Bone... of the father unknowingly given..." A bone forced its way through the ground, a good three feet or so below Harry's feet. In a most eerie way, it crept to the cauldron and landed inside with a queasying plop.

Now cursing under his breath in between choked-back sobs, Wormtail neared the cauldron and drew a dagger,

"Flesh... of the servant... willingly sacrificed..." Harry cringed as Wormtail screamed, his right hand dropping from his wrist as the blade severed it away.

Turning to face Harry, Wormtail raised the dagger in his left hand, gripping it as tightly as he could with its four fingers and swinging upward.

Harry knew what he was about to do the second the rodent's rank breath fell upon his face.

"Blood... of the enemy.. forcibly taken."

Harry could do nothing to prevent what happened next. He was bound too well. His eyes swinging downward at the creep before him, Harry prepared for the worst.

He tensed and gritted his teeth as the blade tore through the flesh of his left arm. Wormtail dragged the blade across his oozing flesh and returned to the cauldron, flicking the remaining drips of blood inside.

_Please, let it have gone wrong. ... Let it be dead..._

But, as if acting only against his pleas, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rose from inside the cauldron.

Lord Voldemort had risen again.

* * *

"Pansy," said Hermione softly, "We need to warn him... or..." her voice quaked and nearly failed completely as Ron walked up from behind her, "Find out where he is so we... can.."

Hermione choked up and wiped a tear from her cheek.

"I... I can help you..." Hermione stammered from sobbing, "I can... go into your mind... help... somehow."

"I'll help, too." Ron sighed. He wasn't at all sighing about having to help Harry. He was incredibly uncomfortable with being inside Harry's fiancée's mind. He was quite afraid of what he'd find...

The judges looked anxiously from person to person as Hermione, Ron, and Pansy drew closer to one another.

Letting her tension slip away, however reluctantly, Pansy cleared her mind and prepared for the hardest thing she had ever done.

Hermione squinted and allowed her mind to plow into Pansy's. Hermione was not nearly as skilled as Harry or Pansy with mindseeking, and as such needed some serious practice to become more careful.

Pansy gasped as a migraine of pain ripped through her head; she wasn't even in contact with Harry yet.

Hermione mumbled an apology as Ron prepared to push his way in, too.

Ron fought the demons inside him that wanted him to run, wanted him to flee like a dog with a tail between its legs. Fighting to stay strong for Hermione... and for Harry... and, Merlin forbid, for his innuendo-happy wife... fiancée, he raked his way into Pansy's thoughts.

It felt extremely odd to have three consciousnesses in the same mind.

"Ready?" Pansy asked, her voice distorted from stress and pain.

Hermione and Ron both thought the affirmative.

Pansy focused her mind on Harry, concentrated on seeping her mind back into his thoughts, back into him

As she made contact with him, she, and, she was certain, Hermione and Ron, screamed.

Dumbledore and Madame Maxim both stood, rushing toward them.

"No," said Ron, his voice bearing immense stress as well, "We have to..."

Blood seeped through the pores in Hermione's forehead. Etched out in the shape of a lighting bolt, blood streamed down her face and into her bushy eyebrows. Blinking away teardrops of blood, she fought to hold the connection.

Ron tensed as his arm burned with unprecedented pain, the pores on his forearm crying the bloody song of injury.

An injury he didn't even have.

The same wounds opening again on Pansy, she gnashed her teeth as she fought to speak into his troubled mind.

"Harry?"


	31. The Connection

"Hold out your arm, Wormtail." said the voice of Lord Voldemort, taking the wand forcefully from his hands.

"Thank you, master." Wormtail grimaced and held out his stump of a right arm.

"Your _other _arm, Wormtail." Wormtail fidgeted and whined, but, in the end, lowered his right and raised his left.

"HARRY!" screamed Pansy into Harry's mind. "MERLIN, THIS HURTS!" Harry heard her cry in the back of his thoughts, "HARRY, YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THERE!"

"Yeah." sighed Harry, "It's just so easy I think I'll just go home, now."

"_NOT_ FUNNY, HONEY." she responded. Her voice was abnormally loud.

"Did you just say that to rhyme?" Harry chuckled. "My, my, Mrs. Potter, your sense of humor is going dry."

Hermione's voice was sent railing into his thoughts next. It was far more faint, but, the words caused him migraine he was sure he'd have felt more of had he not been in intense pain already,

"Harry, we're serious." she begged, "Blink.. do something. Get out of there."

"I can't MOVE." he grumped. "Trust me, I'm really not enjoying this."

The air around Harry went a chilly cold. Steams of dark black streaked across the sky and down before Voldemort in an every-increasingly unnerving ring.

"Thirteen years, it's been." said Voldemort, his sorry excuse for nostrils flaring, "And here you all stand before me as if it were only yesterday." his deep, red eyes glowered at each of the figures standing around him, "I confess myself.. disappointed."

Several of the Death Eaters shifted uneasily in their positions.

"Not one of you tried to find me... not one of you." he reached for a mask and drew his hand away from it... it vanished into a sickly smoke that dissipated into the gray sky. "Mulciber."

He repeated the gesture again and again, each time repeating a name,

"Crabbe... Goyle... Avery... Nott... Alishir..."

Wait... did he just say Alishir?

"... not even you... Lucius."

Lucius Malfoy fell to his knees as the mask was removed from his face,

"My lord, if I had detected a sign.. a whisper of you whereabouts.."

Lucius rose his head only slightly to look Voldemort in the eye... but instead averted his gaze to stare at the dying flames under the cauldron. It was very clear, that, in the past, both by his actions last year, the year before, and even his reaction to his master's return now, that Lucius Malfoy was very, very high-up in the Dark Lord's chain of command. Harry'd known this for a long time. _Too long_.

Ever since that rat bastard killed his fiancée's father.

"There were signs.. and more than whispers, my slippery friend."

"My lord... the face I have been obliged to present since your absence.. that is my true mask." Malfoy seemed rather unsure of his standing... or kneeling...

"Shall I divulge what happened that night?" Voldemort was furious, Harry could feel the temper rising from him... the heat radiating throughout the field was enough to make the air nearly warm. Voldemort turned to Harry,

"What _really _happened that night?" he smirked, "How lies have fed your legend, Potter." He turned and gradually circled to face each of his Death Eaters as he spoke, "You see... it was love... When _sweet_" the word sounded like poison coming from his lips, "Lily Potter gave her life for her only son... It was magic.. old magic... something I should have forseen..." his voice deepened and hardened, "but that doesn't matter... no, no... I can touch you now!" Voldemort raced over to where Harry floated and ran his finger down the scar he had left so long ago...

Harry wished, begged that Pansy would speak again... give him some distraction from this awful pain... but no relief came.

He knew she'd be suffering the same infinite pain he now was being forced to endure... and neither of them could hold the other for comfort...

* * *

"They're shaking... Dumbledore... shouldn't we be doing something" shrieked Minerva McGonagall.

"What would you suggest, Minerva?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

"Put an end to it!" she croaked, "Stop it... before.. they bleed to death."

All three of them where on their knees, their bodies shaking violently, but controlled.

"_Mrs. Potter_," said Dumbledore softly, Pansy responded only by falling backward...


	32. The Grave Mistake

Harry felt the forces binding his body release, and, without any forewarning, Harry crashed ungraciously into the ground.**  
**  
"You've been taught how to duel, I presume?" hissed Voldemort as he circled around Harry's collapsed form.

"Yes," Harry groaned through his gritted teeth, struggling to his feet.

"Good." he said smoothly, "First we _bow_ to one another." he hunched over in the most mocking bow he could muster, his hand and wand crooked behind him like some dying crow.

Harry stood still. Unwilling to show any respect or fear to this monster... this vile abomination that was causing Pansy pain.

He didn't care about his own pains anymore.

He cared for Pansy's... for Pansy.

"Come on, Potter, _Dumbledore_ wouldn't want you to forget your manners." he yelled, rising to full height, "I said, _bow_!"

Harry's tensed back gave way as Voldemort flicked his wand. Sporting an even more sinister grin than Harry had yet to see, Voldemort continued,

"Good, now..." he said with a false softness, "_CRUCIO_!"

* * *

Pansy's robes were now nearly completely soaked in her own blood. She lay back on the sand of the Quidditch pitch, the sand surrounding her reddening more with each passing minute.

The audience had ceased to keep their eyes on the maze, and had turned their attention to the failing body of Pansy Potter.

Fleur, having been restored by Madam Pomfrey immediately after her rescuse by Harry, ran to Pansy's side and did all she could to help.

Harry had helped her on three separate occasions, the least she could do to repay him...

May have been to save the life of his wife.

Fleur knelt down beside her, her sister Gabrielle doing the same across from her. They watched as Pansy's eyelashes beat rapidly.

Her skin was pale and clammy, but, for the first time since she had re-initiated contact with Harry, she was still. Her arms were laid neatly at her side.

There was even a small smile on her face.

"Ahrg...oomph." Ron and Hermione grunted together as their minds were forced from Pansy's. "What..."

"Pansy!" Hermione breathed, racing to Pansy's motionless form, "Pansy, are you.."

Pansy's thoughts spun round in her head. She could feel her body weakening, but refused to allow herself to sink into nothingness.

She had to hold it together... had to keep strong. For _him_.

Fleur, Gabrielle, and Hermione gasped as Pansy spoke in a harsh whisper,

"Harry, I am here for you."

* * *

Harry's heart sank further as his body writhed. The pain... Merlin, the pain. Harry felt sure he would slip into unconsciousness from it all. But, no. Such a release never came.

To die, then? He had even begun to accept that he was going to die.

"If they speak of you after today it will be only of how you begged for death," he cackled as he threw another curse at Harry, "And I, being the merciful lord, obliged."

Harry heard something.. something other than Snake-Face's conceded supervillian ramblings... he could hear Pansy.

His spirits leapt and his heart stopped as he focused the whole of his consciousness on her voice. The curse pulsed through his body, but he felt no more pain.

"Harry," she said in a whisper, "I am here for you."

Raising onto his feet, despite the curse racing through him, Harry drew his wand and shouted the first spell that came to his mind,

"_EXPELLIARMUS!_"

Immediately as he did so, Voldemort released the curse and countered with his own,

"_AVADA KEDAVRA!_"

A jet of red light collided with a spray of green, the two crashing mid-distance between them. In a furious maelstrom of mysticism, the two wands had connected, a glowing golden strand pulsating violently in the dark of the night.

The orb of magic gradually made its way toward the tip of Harry's wand. As it did so, Harry's wand begun to shake violently. Taking hold of his wand with his far weaker left hand, Harry grasped onto it for a firmer grip.

Focusing all he could, Harry forced the orb toward Voldemort's wand, hoping, praying, that whatever came of it, would allow him to escape.

Harry could hear Voldemort's mumblings of semi-worry. Voldemort's wand began to shake and rattle just as Harry's had done... when the orb collided with its tip.

A translucent violet sphere formed around the two combatants as streaks of white light evacuated the Dark Lord's wand and took random positions within.

First, the form of a man... the _familiar_ form of a _familiar_ man, Krum... then... an old woman Harry assumed belonged to the Ministry in life... an ancient looking man who seemed to be cheering Harry on,

"So he really was a wizard?" he said, laughing, "Well, I'll be."

"Do nothing!" Voldemort shouted as his Death Eaters made to intervene, "He's mine to finish!"

"Mom?" the unmistakably feminine form of Lily Potter took form right beside Harry.

"Yes, dear. My how it's good to see you. You're so handsome." she smiled at him, "Your father's coming, too."

Harry returned his gaze to Voldemort's wand as a pair of legs pushed from the core, then a torso... then a full man.

"Harry! How good to see you!" he laughed, making his way toward his son, "My, my you've grown! Krum tells me you're engaged? A bit early, don't you think?"

"Not at all, dad." Harry said cheerfully, despite the oddity of the situation, "We were made for one another."

"Well," said Lily kindly, "I'm happy for you."

Harry heard Lucius make an unmistakably rude, snide comment under his breath.

"Hey! Lucius!" jeered his father, "I see you've made some friends!"

Lucius growled and muttered further rude obscenities in undertone.

"Harry, there's nothing you can do," said Pansy softly in his mind, urgency dripping from every syllable, "Just get yourself away from there." she pleaded, "Get to the Portkey and _come home_."

"Take my body back." Krum's form said to him in a reverent manner, "My mah-der, she vould vant to..." his ghostly form broke off into choked cries.

"Harry, when the connection is broken you must get to the Portkey." Harry's mother added quickly, taking one final look at her son, "We can linger only for a moment to give you time."

Feeling the strength of his loved ones; his mother, his father, his wife, Harry freed his left hand and shot a stunning spell with all due haste, ripped his wand from the connection as the ghostly forms of all those gone before raced to scurry the Death Eaters, ran to Krum's limp form, summoned the Triwizard Cup, and vanished.

"HARRY!" screamed Fleur as she ran from where she knelt, her heart racing with the panic inside her.


	33. He's Back

"Harry, you are alright." said Fleur, her French accent almost unnoticeable. She wrapped her arms around him and held in him into a wobbly stand.

"Where is she?" Harry asked, his vision blurred as he staggered some. Fleur pulled him back again before he collided with the ground.

Fleur, with a little help from her sister, Gabrielle, led Harry to Pansy. Harry pushed himself out of Fleur's grip and fell to his knees.

"Pansy..." he waved his right hand over her forehead.

The blood vanished.

Harry leaned over the unconscious form of his wife-to-be, and, to press the matter of his caring for her, kissed her lips, sliding his mind into hers.

"Honey, I'm home."

Pansy's eyes shot open. She smiled weakly and wrapped her arms around the back of Harry's neck, leaning upward as much as she could to kiss him again.

"Oh, get a room!" shouted Draco from the stands.

Harry couldn't be sure, well... actually he was quite sure.

Libra pushed Draco off the balcony of the stands...

"Harry!" Hermione squeaked as Harry released Pansy. Hermione threw her arms around Harry and kissed him chastely, briefly, then smiled. "You're alive!" Her eyebrows bunched up as she re-hugged him and rocked him some.**  
**  
"Hermione," Harry choked, "I need to breathe!"

She released him, kissed his forehead again and stepped backward, only to have Fleur stand before him.

"Harry," she said, her eyes staring down at the ground, "I cannot thank you enough for what you 'ave done." She smiled shyly, and even blushed a little. She hugged Harry gently and kissed each of his cheeks.

Ron looked rather jealous.

Gabrielle joined the hug and added her own kiss to his left cheek as Fleur released him.

Pansy wobbly stood and wrapped her arms around Harry from behind,

"Hey," she joked, "He belongs to me."

"Krum is dead..." said Harry solemnly. It seemed that, just then, the audience finally had recognized that terrible fact.

Cornelius Fudge and Albus Dumbledore made their way toward the victorius champion. Harry said the only thing he could think of,

"He's back!" Harry wanted to cry, "Voldemort's back."

Pansy turned Harry around and held him.

"He's dead," sobbed Harry, "All my fault... I should have..."

"Harry, there was nothing you could do." said Pansy softly, stroking his hair lovingly.

Harry sniffled and nodded, a strange feeling entered his mind, he felt, once again like he was being scanned.

"Seems we're still on schedule for the wedding." Pansy said suddenly.

"It would seem so." Harry whispered, kissing her cheek as a tear rolled down his.

"Potter, Parkinson, come with me." said the gruff voice of Professor Mad-Eye Moody pulling them toward him, "We've got to get you both to the Hospital Wing."

Pansy hissed at hearing her last name, but strode behind him anyways.

Harry couldn't help but wonder why Ron and Hermione hadn't been pushed into going to the Hospital Wing, too. Both of them were in a rather rough state as well.

Entering the Entrance Hall, Pansy, too, became suspicious and began to lightly probe Mad-Eye Moody's mind.

"Something's up, Harry." thought Pansy to Harry.

"I know..." Harry responded, "He's acting odd. Why aren't Hermione or Ron coming, too?"

"What was it like?" Mad-Eye asked.

"What was what like?" Harry queried.

"To stand in his presence."

"I don't.. what?"

"In the graveyard... where there others?"

Harry suddenly stopped where he stood. Something was _definitely_ not right. Harry began broadcasting his concern to Dumbledore and could sense Pansy was doing the same.

"I... never mentioned anything about a graveyard, sir."

Pansy, however, had. But Moody had been no where near when she did. And she knew it.

Moody wheeled around and brandished his wand at Harry. His eyes began to bulge from their sockets, his flesh warped some.

Fumbling in his pockets, he pulled out a flask, opened it and tossed it aside, then began to rummage further.

"ALASTOR!" shouted Dumbledore from the entrance, his voice echoed in the halls.

"_Incarcerous_." shouted Moody, directing his wand at Harry. Pansy, thinking quickly, shielded him before the spell hit.

"STUPEFY!" growled Snape, a jet of red light striking Mad-Eye's continuously changing form. Hermione, Fleur, Gabrielle, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Ron rushed in behind him.

Mad-Eye flopped unconscious to the floor as he began to look more and more like Barty Crouch, Jr.

Dumbledore stood beside Harry watching and laughed subtly,

"You know," he smiled, "It's quite distracting having two people in my head at the same time..." he shook his head lightheartedly, "Three... if you count me," he smiled, "It's rather... hard... to deal with the 'mixed signals'." he smiled again and patted Harry on the back.

McGonagall walked over to the body and conjured the same ropes that would have bound Harry. With a flick of her wand, she threw the man against the wall in a slumped sitting position.

Dumbledore and Fudge walked slowly up to the man, Snape rushed off to Merlin knows where.

"Barty Crouch, Jr.?" mouthed Fudge, "Impossible! He... he's in Azkaban!"

"He's _supposed_ to be." corrected Flitwick, his eyes rather wide for his tiny body.

Snape raced back into the hall carrying a vial of what could have simply been water.

"_Ennervate_." said Dumbledore simply, pointing his wand at the limp form against the wall. "Now, Severus."

Snape walked across the hall and poured the contents of the vial into the man's mouth. Oh, how Harry wished it were poison...

"How did you get out of Azkaban?" asked Fudge nervously as Centros Alishir walked into the hall behind him.

Dumbledore motioned at Snape. Snape, understanding the gesture, walked toward Harry, Pansy, Hermione, and Ron and ushered them out of the Hall, toward the Hospital Wing.

"He's a Death Eater!" shrieked Hermione, pointing at Centros. Snape did not seem to see where her hand was pointing.

"Yes, we've established that, Ms. Granger." he said in annoyance, motioning his wrist toward Barty Crouch as if to acknowledge that fact.

"He's..." Hermione trailed off as Snape pushed them up out of the room. Hermione knew she had been defeated. She would have to explain that Alishir was a Death Eater _another_ day.


	34. So Not a Dreamless Sleep

Harry Potter lay on his back in the Hospital Wing. He was sound asleep. Each of the quartet had been forced to drink a Dreamless Sleep Potion in hopes that the would relax in their minds and be able to rest properly after seeing the horrors the previous day had put them through.

Harry realized, of course, that this potion didn't really force you to have a dreamless sleep. It, rather, allowed you to think only of your happy memories, your pleasurable experiences, your loved ones.

Harry's thoughts turned to the wedding. It was only a few weeks away. Harry thought. Then, decided he'd think a little more. He saw Fleur and Gabrielle...

He knew why.

He'd invite them to be bridesmaids.

Harry smiled internally. He'd love to see a little more of them, maybe even befriend them. Fleur had been such a caring person, and he was sure her sister, Gabrielle would be much the same.

Harry's thoughts then turned to Pansy. Her eyes. Her hair. Her scent. Her warm body against his, even as it was now.

This, Harry thought, was peace.

Pansy Parkinson...  
_  
Pansy beats the living daylights out of the writer for using her maiden name..._

_Forty-five minutes later, as the writer regains consciousness and is pinned hopelessly to the side of a thousand-story building...  
_  
Pansy Potter lay beside Harry in the Hospital Wing bed provided her upon being ushered into Madam Pomfrey's skilled medical care. With the shortage of beds and a most convincing staring-down from Pansy, the two had been allowed to share a bed.

It would help them sleep better, you see?

Pansy thought about the wedding... she knew Harry'd be too, and so thought a little about it herself. She was elated. She'd finally be legally, a Potter. Legally be his wife. His chosen one. The Chosen One's Chosen One!

She giggled inside at the thought. Merlin she loved him. He was Harry, after all. That stubborn Gryffindor she pulled that magnificent kiss-stunt on toward the beginning of their last school year... that same stunt that landed them bickering in Divination, receiving detention in Potions, and then, as a stroke of fate would have it, finally admitting their feelings for one another in Snape's classroom.

What an odd way to get together.

Perhaps there was no better way?

They knew they loved each other. That was all that mattered. You see, as the old Muggle saying goes,_ love conquers all_.

Hermione wasn't really sure if the potion was working... she kept thinking about Ron...

Ron.

Ron.

Ooooh. She loved him, yes. But... he was talking about Quidditch! In _her_ sleep!

Merlin. What's wrong with him!?

_Absolutely nothing. _She reminded herself. _Absolutely nothing.  
_  
She knew their relationship would probably never be as strong as Harry and Pansy's, but hey, that second addiction... that little thing neither Harry nor Pansy knew about...

It was good. Ron was good.

Finally, Hermione's thoughts switched. She sighed internally in both relief and annoyance.

Pansy and Harry were now at the forefront of her thoughts. They were kissing, as they often did, but not just kissing.

They were at their wedding. Getting married.

Hermione couldn't feel more happy for them.

Then she imagined herself as the beautiful bride, sampling Harry's lips...

Ron, as was typical when he wasn't thinking about Hermione... or what he loved to do with her... was thinking.. _dreaming_ about Quidditch.

Quidditch.

The very thought made him drool. He was Quidditch captain!

And he not only was good, he had won them the Quidditch Cup! And there was food for the celebration!

Oh, yum. Ron's second favorite thing in the world apart from Quidditch...

Em... scratch that.

Third.

Hermione came in second... wait... no... first. Quidditch came in second... he never could remember the order.

Food. Mmm. Just like mummy used to make_... makes._

Across the hall from our drooling inducing thoughts about Ron's mummy's food is our wonderfully broken Draco Malfoy.

He had eight broken ribs, two broken arms, and a shattered pelvis. Not to mention one broken ego.

Let's see Madam Pomfrey fix that one, eh?

He was going to kill that ruddy sister of his, even if he had to wait till the summer to do so.

Harry stirred, feeling the soft hair of his fiancée brush gently against his chest. He opened his eyes.

Hermione was not asleep.

Not at all asleep. Her eyes were quite wide open, thank you very much. And glazed.


	35. Control

"Hermione?" Harry asked apprehensively as he rose from his bed, purposely a little roughly to wake Pansy.

In Hermione palms rested two very painful-looking freezing charms. As she moved her arms forward, her glazed eyes sparkling slightly, she crashed to the floor, a rather disturbed Ron on top of her.**  
**  
"Hermione, what's WRONG with you?" he asked, pinning her hands to the ground and straddling her waist to prevent her from moving her legs. Harry again felt his mind being scanned.

Hermione's eyes simply sparkled as her next words came out,

"The Hermione you knew no longer exists." she finalized her words with a maniacal cackle.

"Hermione, please listen to me. I know you're in there!" Ron begged, inadvertently loosening his grip on her only slightly.

But it was just enough. Hermione whisked her hands upward, Ron was sent flying off into the air, and landed with a massive crash on top of Draco Malfoy.

Not bothering to apologize to the rather irritated, stirring Draco Malfoy, Ron rushed back to her, she sent another spell flying at him. He casually blocked it with a quick Air Suppression shield, the spell ricocheted and smashed into a cabinet door, causing the contents to shake, break, and fall.

Racing from her office, a very annoyed Madam Pomfrey raced into the room, only to see the cause for the commotion.

"Hermione," he was begging now as he slowly crept closer to her, "Please, Hermione, I know you're in there."

"Remember who you are!" Pansy screamed, her voice full of panic, "Fight this..."

A streak of white light shot across the room and hit Pansy square in the chest, causing her to spiral backward and crash into Madam Pomfrey. Both were rendered unconscious.

Quickly, Harry raced in front of Hermione as she refocused her attentions, touching the pads of his fingers to her temple, he spoke softly.

"Hermione." he whispered, his voice quavering from fear, "Remember."

Memories flashed through Hermione's mind.  
_  
"Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not a very good one, is it?" she heard herself laugh as she sat down beside a young, redhead with dirt on his nose._

The colors blurred.

_"He's going to sacrifice himself!" Harry screamed._

_"No! You can't!" she heard herself cry, her eyes welled with tears._

_"Do you want to stop Snape from getting the Stone or not?"  
_  
The colors blurred again.  
_  
"Harry! It's so good to see you! Come on, everyone's been so worried!" she ran toward her green-eyed friend and hugged him, he lifted her off of her feet and swung her lovingly.  
_  
Blue spun into yellow, and green into white, again a memory flew through her mind,  
_  
"Need reminding, Potter?" growled Draco Malfoy from behind Pansy.  
_

_"Oh, I think he remembers." she said, her voice dripping with sultry tones as she leaned forward and swallowed his lips with her own. Hermione could feel her jealously tear at her insides as Ron's soothing hand touched her own..._

The colors made her dizzy, the emotion, the excitement, the love. The friendship. The caring...

_"Not all love is unrequited." she saw his lips crash upon hers and she swelled with joy as she joined in on the kiss, probing, searching for the love she so desperately needed to feel.  
_  
Again and again the colors spun through her mind, her heart raced, she knew this, it was all familiar to her.  
_  
"Hermione?" asked Ron._

_"Yes, Ron?" she responded in annoyance. She knew he would only be calling her name if he wanted something from her. It was something she felt herself resentfully becoming accustomed to._

_"This whole Pansy-Harry thing had me thinkin'."_

_She rolled her eyes and sighed._

_"I'm not in the mood, Ronald."_

_"I mean, you're smart... and pretty.. and.." Oh, so this was how he wanted to play it? Attack her insecurities to force an answer from her._

_"What do you want, Ronald?" she grumped, folding her arms as she had seen her friend do so many times before._

_"You." he said simply. Her heart raced as he leaned in toward her, their lips met for the first time as they shared their first kiss...  
_  
Happiness surged through her, a tear rolled down her cheek. Her eyes were still glazed, but she stood, still, unmoving, her eyes failing to blink.

Her face lost all emotion as it went blank, the anger that had once run though her was gone._  
_  
Harry removed his fingers from her temple and whispered,

"Remember."

Ron spoke,

"Hermione?" his voice was uncertain, but, nonetheless, calm.

Harry stepped to the side, allowing Ron to face his girlfriend alone. He place his hands lovingly on her shoulders and stared into her soft brown eyes,

"Hermione?"

She blinked.

"I..."

"Hermione, I love you." he whispered. Hermione's eyes were still glazed. Her face still devoid of any emotion, other than the occasional tear that ran down her paling complexion.

She blinked again.

"I..."

"Ron, remember what Dumbledore said?" Harry said the words in the most calming manner he could, "The ones we love have a way of being able to get to us." he softened his volume, "Perhaps this is what he meant?"

Ron smiled slightly and leaned inward to kiss Hermione. He gently brushed his lips against hers, caring and concern affording him only a soft touch; far sweeter than the hungry passionate kissing they had been sharing all year.

Ron's heart sunk as she failed to return his gesture. He wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her closer, very gradually deepening the kiss.

Hermione gasped into his lips as her mind cleared, her eyelashes fluttered and her heart leapt with joy as she pressed herself into Ron, forcing the passion from his lips like one of the succubi from legend...

"Oh, get a room!" groaned Draco Malfoy, rolling his eyes and flopping backward onto his pillow. He had hoped she'd kill at least one person.

Fleur rolled onto her side and laughed,**  
**  
"You are lucky your sister eez not 'ere." she said, using her hands to recreate the humor of his falling from the stands.

Gently, Ron pulled away from the kiss and stroked Hermione's cheek, wiping away the tears that now flowed freely,

"Why is it always me?" she cried.

Centros Alishir walked in from the door,

"Because you care the most."


	36. Alishir

"You're a Death Eater!" shrieked Hermione, her memories gradually returning from where they fogged the night before, just as she had been pointing out his guilt to Snape...

"No," he said simply, walking further into the room, "I was."

"ARE!" yelled Harry, fury building within him, stunning jinxes finding their way to float in his hands, "Your name was called when Voldemort..."

"The Dark Lord, yes." Alishir interrupted, "You see, I do not serve him."

"But your name..." Harry's voice trailed off as again, Centros Alishir spoke over him. Harry was getting rather annoyed. In the back, Pansy stirred and rose.

"Did you hear _Centros_ Alishir?" he asked smoothly, a small smile forming on his face, this guy was giving Hermione the creeps, "No, I didn't think so. You heard him refer to 'me' by _our_ last name."

"Our?" Hermione queried, her eyebrow raising in disbelief.

"My _darling_ sister." he said snidely, "Oh, poppet!"

Draco laughed,  
**  
**"Do you really expect her to come just because she's called?" he rolled on his bed in an uncontrollable fit of giggles.

"Of course not." he said simply, waving his arm through the air.

That very second, a massive crashing noise erupted in the Hospital Wing as an old woman smashed into and through the window. Madam Pomfrey rose, now conscious, she looked ready to kill at the state her room was in.

The woman flying through the room screamed in frustration as she landed with a loud _thump_ in front of her brother.

Pansy, seeing the possibilities for trouble the event now held, instantly began calling mentally for Dumbledore. Harry did the same.

"Incarcerous." Centros said, whipping his wand in at her direction as ropes bound themselves around her, "Apprehendum." an eerily bluish smoke floated around her, to prevent Blinking, Harry supposed, "Now, now." he walked toward her slowly, wearing a wicked grin, "Giving the family a bad name, are we? Messing with the students minds?"

She mumbled something under her breath that Harry knew was offensive. Harry could see the hairs on the back of Centros' neck raise, but he did not attack as even Harry himself felt inclined to do.

This woman had been messing with them all year, Harry now convinced himself, feeling sure of the evidence that Centros had provided them. Almost all of it made sense.

"Using the Imperius Curse on Ms. Granger? The Confundus Charm on Mr. Potter?" he shouted, raising his arms into the air in frustration. Harry felt himself suddenly _know_ what this man was saying was true, and with no mental influence, either.

Hermione smirked and spun around to face Harry,

"HA!" she chuckled, "You _were_ being controlled! Hermione 2, Harry 0!"

It was quite unlike Hermione to use _scores_... but Harry laughed anyways.

"Fine," Harry sighed, "you win." Harry added a mental afterthought to Hermione, "Hermione 3, Harry 1." his laugh echoed in her thoughts, "I still got the kiss."

Hermione went a scarlet red as she blushed and shied away. She crept closer to Ron and took his hand, resting her head on his shoulder.

"You don't think anyone would notice, Dimentia?" Centros growled, hissing his sister's first name like poison, "Didn't think that no one would see through the poorly performed curses?" he placed his face right before hers for added effect, "Even Mr. Potter saw through them the first night they occurred! I knew right from then that you were up to something, vowed to keep a closer watch on you. But you stayed hidden, well hidden. Until now."

Harry suddenly realized where the feeling of scanning came from.

"You will suffer the consequences for.. this." growled Dimentia, "The Dark Lord will see to it."

"So it was you, then?" asked Harry to Dimentia Alishir. "You kept scanning me?"

"No," sighed Centros, "_That _was my doing. I needed to keep on top of anything in case something like your incident in your common room happened again. When Dumbledore mentioned the fiasco to me, I knew."

Harry didn't understand.

"But why scan me?" he queried, his voice raising in pitch slightly.

"She was least likely to tamper with you," he admitted, "After all, the Dark Lord wanted, _wants_ you." he sighed, "She'd mess with the minds of your friends to alienate them from you. Force you to live on your own, alone."

Fleur added her own words. They sounded nearly prophetic,

"Because if eet eez just you alone, you are not as beeg of a threat."

"Precisely." Centros nodded and rose from his crouched position.

Dumbledore walked in. His eyes bulged at first, seeing the disarray of the Hospital Wing, then widened, if it was possible, further, to see the chaos that had unraveled in the corner of the room.

"Anyone care to explain what's going on, here?" he asked calmly, his voice not at all reflecting his facial expression.

"Nope." replied Centros Alishir simply, "We just need an owl delivered to Azkaban. They have a prisoner awaiting them."


	37. For Unity, For Memory, Forever

The entirety of the Great Hall was silent. Every member of both student body and staff of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang sat in reverent silence for their fallen friend.

Viktor Krum had been lost to them, lost in the worst way he could have been. The way that destroys families. The way of Lord Voldemort.

Rising from his seat, Dumbledore spoke quietly, but far louder than any of the grieving minds expected,

"Today, we are here to acknowledge a really terrible loss."

Harry could hear a few cries of sadness erupt from the Ravenclaw table, where Fleur Delacour burst into uncontrollable tears. It would seem, as Harry pointed out to Hermione, that _not all love is unrequited_.

"Viktor Krum was, as you all know, exceptionally hard-working, infinitely caring, and most importantly, a true, loyal friend. Therefore, I feel you have the right to know _exactly_ how he died."

Dumbledore paused as the audience took in his words. The silence broken only by the occasional sniffs and sobs of many people before the headmaster, each paying their respects in the only way they could.

"You see, Viktor Krum was murdered, by Lord Voldemort." The words and name of the Dark Lord hushed the crying at once. Fleur rose her bloodshot eyes to stare at the man that had uttered them, with them prying into his soul.

Dumbledore paused again as he waited for the moment to relax. Hermione shifted in her seat and made a loud smacking noise as she slammed something in her hand against the ground, then looked apologetically at those surrounding her.

"The Ministry of Magic does not wish me to tell you this." he admitted, fighting a little of his own tears as he did so, "But not to do so, I feel, would be an insult to his memory."

He paused again to allow himself to regain composure. Viktor Krum's mom, in the first row, wept her heart and soul out. As a mother, she was gravely grieved by the loss of her only son, her only offspring. And the loss of her husband the year before made the loss all the more painful.

"Now, the pain we all feel at this dreadful loss reminds me, and, reminds us, that though we may come from different countries and speak in different tongues, our hearts beat as one."

Harry heard Pansy, for the first time in what seemed like an entire year, sob beside him. His heart ached for her, hearing her in sadness was the last thing he could ever endure. He would sooner take a Cruciatus Curse from the whole of the Death Eaters than endure her crying, it tore him apart.

Harry wrapped his free arm around Pansy and pulled her into a tight hug, rocking her gently as he did so. Her broken sobbing whispered through his ears as he gently stroked her hair.

"In light of the recent events, the bonds of friendship made this year will be more important than ever. Remember that, hold to that truth,"

The audience's already solemn, reverent tone rested to complete silence.

"and Viktor Krum will not have died in vain."

Hermione breathed a "ha!" and raised a closed jaw into the air. Inside, an ugly red beetle spun around as Hermione shook it vigorously.

Harry nearly laughed at the sight. At any other time, he would have snatched the jar, dropped the beetle from inside onto the ground, and smashed it with every ounce of hate he had.

But this, he reminded himself, was not like any other time. It was a time of realization. A time that whispered into the minds of every man, woman, and child in that audience that times were changing, that peace was failing, and that, against all their best efforts, Lord Voldemort was once again in power.

"You remember _that_... and we will celebrate a boy who was kind, honest, brave, and true, right... to the very end."


	38. Ere We Part

Harry watched, hand in hand with Pansy, as the Durmstrang boat set sail to return to its home. The calm waters of the Black Lake parting gently as it took off into the setting sun.

Walking backward into the courtyard, Harry smiled and kissed his fiancée. In just a week, they would be married. Harry really could have been more excited at the thought.

Seeing Fleur and Gabrielle Delacour walk out of the courtyard, heading toward the Beauxbatons carriage, Harry quickly alerted Pansy of his intentions. When no word of rejection or refusal came, Harry called after the two young ladies,

"Fleur!" he shouted, running with Pansy toward them, "Gabby!"

Both of them turned around and looked at him. Gabrielle looked rather shy as she looked up at Harry. She turned slightly and blushed.

Harry and Pansy took it in turns to hug the two sisters.

"I was wondering," began Harry, looking at Fleur, "You know that Pansy and I are getting married, and, well... we'd be honored if you would be willing to be bridesmaids for the wedding."

"We 'ardly know each uzzer." Fleur admitted. "But, with Gabrielle attending 'Ogwarts zees next year, I suppose zat will change."

Gabrielle smiled widely.

"You'll be attending Hogwarts?" asked Harry, leaning down slightly to look into the eleven-year-old's eyes.

She gave a small, shy nod. Harry stood once again, and Fleur wrapped Harry in a caring hug,

"Of 'course we weel 'elp you, when eez eet?"

Gabrielle wrapped her own arms around Harry for a hug as well.

"Next Saturday." said Harry simply. Fleur's eyes bulged as she pulled out of the hug, disappointing her little sister slightly.

"So soon?" she breathed, "But, zee dresses?"

"The designs for the bridesmaids dresses have already been chosen." reassured Pansy, laughing softly, "We'll owl you about you sizes."

Harry kissed Fleur's cheek, much to the jealousy and envy of little Gabrielle. Pansy hugged Fleur and waved her off as she climbed into the carriage.

"Thank you."

* * *

Luggage in hand, walking beside Pansy and Hermione, followed by Ron, Harry made his way down to Hogsmeade to board the Hogwarts Express.

"Everything is going to change now, isn't it?" whispered Hermione, sighing softly.

"Obviously, yes." Harry laughed, "We're getting married!" he hugged Pansy by the waist and kissed her cheek. Pansy giggled appreciatively.

"I mean... out there." Hermione corrected, staring off into the sky. She looked a little mystified.

Harry thought in silence for a few seconds before responding with a simple,

"Yes."

Hermione breathed and turned her eyes to focus on each Pansy, Harry, and Ron in turn,

"Promise me you'll write this summer, all three of you!"

"Hermione," cackled Pansy, "We won't be gone that long, we'll be seeing you at the wedding next week!" she smiled, "Not to mention probably every day save _maybe_ tomorrow for the preparations!"

Hermione swept both Pansy and Harry into a tight hug,

"I know. But it's just such a long time." she pouted, sounding very much like a small child.

Chuckling heartily, Harry took his first steps onto the train. Next year, he would arrive here a married man. A changed man.

Hogwarts would never be the same. Harry, Pansy, Hermione, even Ron, would never be the same.

They had learned this year, through bonding, friendship, and even a little romance, that sacrificing yourself, whether by giving your life as Krum did, or by enduring one another's burdens as Pansy had, by _giving yourself away_ for the ones you care for, you show through the greatest way possible that you _care_.

Not one soul could leave Hogwarts this year unchanged. Whether member of Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, or Hogwarts, they would always remember. Always remember that in the end, when all is said and done, the only thing that matters is _love_.

_The End_


End file.
